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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18815-h.zip b/18815-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b69e536 --- /dev/null +++ b/18815-h.zip diff --git a/18815-h/18815-h.htm b/18815-h/18815-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cd24c79 --- /dev/null +++ b/18815-h/18815-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11049 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Mark of the Beast, by Sidney Watson</title> +<style type="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: medium; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {font-size: small } + + hr.full { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + a:link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none; } + link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none; } + a:visited {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none; } + a:hover {color:#ff0000; + text-decoration: underline; } + pre {font-size: 75%; } + +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1 align="center">The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Mark of the Beast, by Sidney Watson</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Mark of the Beast</p> +<p>Author: Sidney Watson</p> +<p>Release Date: July 13, 2006 [eBook #18815]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARK OF THE BEAST***</p> +<br><br><center><h3>E-text prepared by Al Haines</h3></center><br><br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE MARK OF THE BEAST +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +SIDNEY WATSON +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +<I>Author of "In the Twinkling of An Eye"; <BR> +"Scarlet and Purple"</I> +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NEW YORK +<BR> +FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY +<BR> +LONDON AND EDINBURGH +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +Copyright, 1918, by +<BR> +Bible Institute of Los Angeles +<BR><BR> +Copyright, 1933, by +<BR> +Fleming H. Revell Company +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PUBLISHER'S NOTE. +</H3> + +<P> +After the Lord's Second Coming, what will happen to those left behind? +What will the Tribulation period be like? What will happen during the +reign of the Antichrist? What is meant by "The Mark of the Beast"? +What will be the fate of those who refuse to bear this mark? +</P> + +<P> +All of these questions and many others connected with the mark of the +beast, are answered in this realistic, startling, awe-inspiring story. +</P> + +<P> +Although entirely fictional, the author has based his narrative on just +what the Bible teaches concerning the Great Tribulation—that awful +period of distress and woe that is coming upon this earth during the +time when the Anti-christ will rule with unhindered sway. It is a +story you will never forget—a story that has been used of God in the +salvation of souls, and in awakening careless Christians to the need of +a closer walk with Jesus in their daily lives. This volume deserves a +wide reading. It should be in every Sunday School Library and in every +home. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TO THAT CHAMPION OF "THE WORD OF GOD," +<BR><BR> +THE +<BR> +REV. G. CAMPBELL MORGAN, D.D. +<BR><BR> +THIS BOOK IS +<BR> +(BY HIS PERMISSION) HUMBLY +<BR> +DEDICATED +<BR> +IN RECOGNITION OF THE SPIRITUAL HELP, +<BR> +AND A DEEP QUICKENING +<BR> +TO BIBLE STUDY RECEIVED BY THE +<BR> +AUTHOR +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS. +</H2> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> + +<TABLE WIDTH="80%"> +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#preface">PREFACE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap00b">PROLOGUE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">TWENTY FIVE YEARS LATER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">A "SUPER MAN"</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">"TO THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL"</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">FORESHADOWINGS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">CRUEL AS THE GRAVE!</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">"A REED LIKE A ROD"</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">"THE MARK OF THE BEAST"</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">THE INVESTITURE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">THE DEDICATION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">A LEBANON ROSE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">HERO WORSHIP</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">ANTI-"WE-ISM"</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">"THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION"</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">DEATH OF THE "TWO WITNESSES"</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">FLIGHT! PURSUIT!</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">MARTYRED</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">A GATHERING UP</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +ILLUSTRATION +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A HREF="#img-096"> +The Mark of the Beast +</A> +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="preface"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PREFACE. +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +The great acceptance with which the Author's previous volume "In the +Twinkling of an Eye" was received, when published in Oct. 1910, +together with the many records of blessing resulting from the perusal, +leads him to hope that the present volume may prove equally useful. +</P> + +<P> +The subjects treated in this volume are possibly less known, (even +among <I>some</I> who hold the truth of the Lord's <I>Near</I> Return in joyful +Hope) than the subjects handled "In the Twinkling of an Eye," but they +certainly should have as much interest as the earlier truths, and +should lead (those hitherto unacquainted with them) to a careful, +prayerful searching of "The Word." +</P> + +<P> +The Author would here mark his indebtedness to Dr. Joseph A. Seiss, and +Dr. Campbell Morgan, for the inceptive thoughts <I>re</I> Judas Iscariot, +and The Antichrist. Dr. Campbell Morgan's very remarkable sermon on +"Christ and Judas"—under date December 18, 1908—while being +profoundly interesting and illuminating, it has proved to the Author to +be the only sound theory of explanation of that perplexing +personality—Judas Iscariot—he has ever met. +</P> + +<P> +While cleaving close to Scripture, at the same time it has settled the +life-long perplexity of the writer of this book, as to the difficulties +surrounding "The Traitor." +</P> + +<P> +The fictional form has again been adopted in this volume, for the same +reasons that obtained in the writing of "In the Twinkling of an Eye." +The use of the fictional style for the presentment of sacred subjects +is ever a moot-point with some people. Yet, every parable, allegory, +etc., (not excepting Bunyan's Master-piece) is <I>fictional</I> form. So +that the moot-point really becomes one of <I>degree</I> and not of +<I>principle</I>—if Bunyan, Milton, and Dante, be allowed to be right. +Certain it is that many thousands have read, and have been awakened, +quickened, even converted, by reading "In the Twinkling of an Eye," +"Long Odds," "He's coming To-morrow," (Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe) who +would never have looked at an ordinary pamphlet or book upon the +subject. One of the truest and most noted leaders (in the "Church") on +our great convention platforms, himself an authority, and voluminous +writer on the <I>pre</I>-milleniarian view of our Lord's near Return, (a +perfect stranger, personally, to the writer) wrote within a week or two +of the issue of "In the Twinkling of an Eye," saying: +</P> + +<P> +"I have just finished reading your <I>wonderful</I> book "In the Twinkling +of an Eye." It has <I>solemnised</I> me <I>very greatly</I>—more than anything +for a long time … May the Lord use your book to <I>STARTLE</I> the +careless, ill-taught professing Christians … Please send me 24 +copies, etc., etc." +</P> + +<P> +The desire of the author of "The Mark of the Beast" has been to further +"startle" and awaken "careless, ill-taught <I>professing</I> Christians," by +giving some faint view of the fate of those <I>professors</I> who will be +"<I>left behind</I>" to go through the horrors of The Tribulation. +</P> + +<P> +To be true to his subject, and to his convictions, the author has had +to approach one or two <I>delicate</I> subjects. These he has sought to +touch in a veiled, a guarded way. Each reader, if desirous of pursuing +more minutely the study of those special parts, can do so by referring +to other Christian author's works. +</P> + +<P> +That there is a growing interest in the whole subject of "The Lord's +Coming," is very apparent in many ways. The intense interest and +quickening that has accompanied the Author's many series of Bible +Readings on "The Near Return of our Lord," during the past twelve +months especially, would have proved the revived interest in the +subject—if proof had been needed. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +SYDNEY WATSON. +<BR><BR> +"The Firs," Vernham Dean, Hungerford, Berks. +<BR> +April 24th, 1911. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap00b"></A> +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE MARK OF THE BEAST +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PROLOGUE. +</H3> + +<P> +It was late August. The year 18— no matter the exact date, except that +the century was growing old. A small house-party was gathered under the +sixteenth century roof of that fine old Warwickshire house, "The Antlers." +</P> + +<P> +"Very old famerly, very old!" the head coachman was fond of saying to +sight-seers, and others. "Come over with William of Normandy, the first +Duerdon did. Famerly allus kept 'emselves very eleck, +cream-del-al-cream, as the saying is in hupper cirkles." +</P> + +<P> +The coachman's estimate of the Duerdon House will serve all the purpose +we need here, and enable us to move among the guests of the house-party +though we have little to do save with two of them—the most striking +female personality in the house, Judith Montmarte, and the latest society +lion, Colonel Youlter, the Thibet explorer. +</P> + +<P> +Judith Montmarte, as her name suggests, was a Jewess. She was tall—it +is curious that the nineteen centuries of Semitic persecution should have +left the Jewess taller, in proportion, than the Jew—Judith Montmarte was +tall, with a full figure. The contour of her face suggested Spanish +blood. Her hair—what a wealth of it there was—was blue-black, finer +than such hair usually is, and with a sheen on it like unto a raven's +wing. Her eyes were large, black, and melting in their fullness. Her +lips were full, and rich in their crimson. +</P> + +<P> +The face was extraordinarily beautiful, in a general way. But though the +lips and eyes would be accounted lovely, yet a true student of faces +would have read cruelty in the ruby lips, and a shade of hell lurking in +the melting black eyes. A millionairess, several times over, (if report +could be trusted) she was known and felt to be a powerful personage. +There was not a continental or oriental court where she was not +well-known—and feared, because of her power. A much-travelled woman, a +wide reader—especially in the matter of the occult; a superb musician; a +Patti and a Lind rolled into one, made her the most wonderful songster of +the day. +</P> + +<P> +In character—chameleon is the only word that can in anyway describe her. +As regarded her appearances in society, her acceptance of invitations, +etc., she was usually regarded as capricious, to a fault. But this was +as it <I>appeared</I> to those with whom she had to do. She had been known to +refuse a banquet at the table of a prince, yet eat a dish of macaroni +with a peasant, or boiled chestnuts with a forest charcoal burner. What +the world did not know, did not realize, was that, in these things, she +was not capricious, but simply serving some deep purpose of her life. +</P> + +<P> +She had accepted the Duerdon invitation because she specially desired to +meet Colonel Youlter. +</P> + +<P> +To-night, the pair had met for the first time, just five minutes before +the gong had sounded for dinner. Colonel Youlter had taken her down to +the dining-room. +</P> + +<P> +Just at first she had spoken but little, and the Colonel had thought her +fatigued, for he had caught one glimpse of the dreamy languor in her +great liquid eyes. +</P> + +<P> +An almost chance remark of his, towards the end of the meal, anent the +mysticism, the spiritism of the East, and the growing cult of the same +order in the West, appeared to suddenly wake her from her dreaminess. +Her dark eyes were turned quickly up to his, a new and eager light +flashed in them. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know," she said, her tone low enough to be caught only by him, +"that it was only the expectation of meeting you, and hearing you talk of +the occult, of that wondrous mysticism of the East, that made me accept +the invitation to this house—that is, I should add, at this particular +time, for I <I>had</I> arranged to go to my glorious Hungarian hills this +week." +</P> + +<P> +Colonel Youlter searched her face eagerly. Had she spoken the tongue of +flattery, or of the mere conventional? He saw she had not, and he began +to regard her with something more than the mere curiosity with which he +had anticipated meeting her. +</P> + +<P> +In his callow days he had been romantic to a degree. Even now his heart +was younger than his years, for while he had never wed, because of a +love-tragedy thirty years before, he had preserved a rare, a very tender +chivalry towards women. He knew he would never love again, as he had +once loved, though, at times, he told himself that he might yet love in a +soberer fashion, and even wed. +</P> + +<P> +"You are interested in the occult, Miss Montmarte?" he replied. +</P> + +<P> +She smiled up into his face, as she said: +</P> + +<P> +"'Interested,' Colonel Youlter? interested is no word for it, for I might +almost say that it is a passion with me, for very little else in life +really holds me long, compared with my love for it." +</P> + +<P> +She glanced swiftly to right and left, and across the table to see if she +was being watched, or listened to. Everyone seemed absorbed with either +their plates or their companions. +</P> + +<P> +Bending towards the man at her side, she said, "You know what an evening +is like at such times as this. We women will adjourn to the Drawing +Room, you men will presently join us, there will be a buzzing of voices, +talk—'cackle' one of America's representatives used to term it, and it +was a good name, only that the hen has done something to cackle about, +she has fulfilled the purpose for which she came into existence, and +women—the average Society women, at least—do not. Then there'll be +singing, of a sort, and—but you know, Colonel, all the usual rigmarole. +Now I want a long, long talk with you about the subject you have just +broached. We could not talk, as we would, in the crowd that will be in +the drawing-room presently, so I wonder if you would give me an hour in +the library, tomorrow morning after breakfast. I suggest the library +because I find it is the one room in the house into which no one ever +seems to go. Of course, Colonel Youlter, if you have something else you +must needs do in the forenoon, pray don't regard my suggestion. Or, if +you would prefer that we walked and talked, I will gladly accommodate +myself to your time and your conveniences." +</P> + +<P> +He assured her that he had made no plans for the morrow, and that he +would be delighted to meet her in the library, for a good long 'confab' +over the subject that evidently possessed a mutual attraction for them. +</P> + +<P> +Mentally, while he studied her, he decided that her chief charm, in his +eyes, was her absolute naturalness and unconventionality. "But to some +men," he mused "what a danger zone she would prove. Allied to her great +beauty, her wealth, and her gifts, there is a way with her that would +make her almost absolutely irresistible if she had set her heart on +anything!" +</P> + +<P> +An hour later that opinion deepened within him as he listened to her +singing in the drawing-room. She had been known to bluntly, flatly +refuse an Emperor who had asked her to sing, and yet to take a little +Sicillian street singer's tambourine from her hand, and sing the coppers +and silver out of the pockets of the folk who had crowded the +market-place at the first liquid notes of her song. She rarely sang in +the houses of her hosts and hostesses. Tonight she had voluntarily gone +to the piano, accompanying herself. +</P> + +<P> +She sang in Hungarian, a folk-song, and a love song of the people of her +own land. Yearning and wistful, full of that curious mystical +melancholy, that always appealed to her own soul, and which characterizes +some of the oldest of the Hungarian folk-songs. +</P> + +<P> +Her second song finished, amid the profoundest hush, she rose as suddenly +from the piano as she had seated herself. A little later she was missed +from the company. She had slipped away to her room, after a quiet +good-night to her table-companion, Colonel Youlter. +</P> + +<BR> +<HR WIDTH="60%" ALIGN="center"> +<BR> + +<P> +At ten-thirty, next morning, Judith Montmarte entered the library. The +Colonel was there already. He rose to meet her, saying, "Where will you +sit? Where will you be most comfortable." +</P> + +<P> +There was a decidedly "comfo" air about the luxuriously-furnished room. +The eyes of the beautiful woman—she was twenty-eight—swept the +apartment and, finally, resting upon a delightful <I>vis-a-vis</I>, she +laughed merrily, as she said: +</P> + +<P> +"Fancy finding a <I>vis-a-vis</I>, and of this luxurious type, too, in a +library. I always think it is a mistake to have the library of the house +so stiff, sometimes the library is positively forbidding." +</P> + +<P> +She laughed lightly again, as she said. "I'm going off into a +disquisition on interiors, so—shall we sit here?" +</P> + +<P> +She dropped into one of the curves of the <I>vis-a-vis</I>, and he took the +other. +</P> + +<P> +For half-an-hour their talk on their pet subject was more or less +general, then he startled her by asking: +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know the Christian New Testament, at all?" +</P> + +<P> +"The Gospels, I have read," she replied, "and am fairly well familiar +with them. I have read, too, the final book, "The Revelation," which +though a sealed book to me, as far as knowledge of its meaning goes, yet +has, I confess, a perennial attraction for me." +</P> + +<P> +She lifted her great eyes to his, a little quizzical expression in them, +as she added: +</P> + +<P> +"You are surprised that I, a Jewess, should speak thus of the Gentile +scriptures!" +</P> + +<P> +Then, without giving him time to reply, she went on: +</P> + +<P> +"But why did you ask whether I knew anything of the New Testament?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because, apropos of what I said a moment ago, anent the repetition of +History, the Christ of the New Testament declared that "as the days of +Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." +</P> + +<P> +She nodded her beautiful head, as though she would assent to the +correctness of his quotation. +</P> + +<P> +"Now I make no profession of being ultra-Christian," he went on, "but I +know the <I>letter</I> of the Bible quite as well as most Teachers of +Christianity, and without intending any egotism I am sure I dare to say +that I know it infinitely better than the average Christian. And if I +was a teacher or preacher of the Christian faith I would raise my voice +most vehemently against the wilful, sinful ignorance of the Bible on the +part of the professed Christians. Members of the various so-called +'churches,' seem to know <I>every</I>thing <I>except</I> their Bibles. Mention a +passage in Spenser, William Wordsworth, Whittier, Longfellow, Tennyson, +Browning, or even Swinburne, William Watson, Charles Fox, Carleton, or +Lowell, and they can pick the volume off the shelf in an instant, and the +next instant, they have the book open at your quotation. But quote Jude +or Enoch, or Job on salt with our eggs, and they go fumbling about in the +mazes of Leviticus, or the Minor Prophets." +</P> + +<P> +He laughed, not maliciously, but with a certain pitying contempt, as he +said: +</P> + +<P> +"The average <I>professing</I> Christian is about as much like the New +Testament model of what he should be, as is the straw-stuffed scarecrow +in the field, in the pockets of the costume of which the birds conceive +it to be the latest joke to build. But I am digressing, I was beginning +about the 'days of Noah' and their <I>near</I> future repetition on the earth." +</P> + +<P> +"'<I>Near repetition</I>?' How do you mean, Colonel?" Judith Montmarte +leaned a little eagerly toward him. In the ordinary way, alone with a +man of his type she would have played the coquette. To-day she thought +nothing of such trifling. There was something so different in his +manner, as he spoke of the things that were engaging them, to even the +ordinary preacher. +</P> + +<P> +The pair were as utterly alone as though they had been on the wide, wide +sea together in an open boat. She had said truly, over-night, "no one +ever comes near the library." +</P> + +<P> +"I mean," he said, replying to her question, "that the seven chief causes +of the apostasy which brought down God's wrath upon the Antediluvians, +have already begun to manifest themselves upon the earth, in such a +measure as to warrant one's saying that 'as it was in the days of Noah, +so it is again today,' and if the New Testament is true in every +letter—we may expect the Return of the Christ at any moment." +</P> + +<P> +She was staring amazedly at him—enquiring, eager, but evidently puzzled. +But she made no sound or sign of interruption, and he went on: +</P> + +<P> +"The first element of the Antediluvian apostasy was the worship of God as +Creator and Benefactor, and not as the Jehovah-God of Covenant and Mercy. +And surely that is what we find everywhere to-day. People acknowledge a +Supreme Being, and accept Christ as a model man, but they flatly deny the +Fall, Hereditary Sin, the need of an Atonement, and all else that is +connected with the Great Evangel. The <I>Second</I> cause of Antediluvian +apostasy was the disregard of the original law of marriage, and the +increased prominence of the female sex." +</P> + +<P> +Judith Montmarte smiled back into his face, as she said: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh that you would propound that in a convention of New Women! And +yet—yet—yes, you are right, as to your fact, as regards life, to-day." +</P> + +<P> +The pair had a merry, friendly spar for a moment or two, then, at her +request, he resumed his subject, and, for a full half hour, he amazed her +with his comparisons of the Antediluvian age with the present time. He +was an interesting speaker and she enjoyed the time immensely. But, +presently, when he came to his seventh and last likeness between the two +ages, since it had to do with a curious phase of Spiritism, she became +more intensely interested. +</P> + +<P> +"There seems to me," he said, "but one correct way of interpreting that +historical item of those strange, Antediluvian days: 'The sons of God saw +the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all +which they chose.' The superficial rendering of this, sometimes given, +that it signifies nothing more than the intermarriage of Cainites and +Sethites, will not suffice when a deeper examination is made in the +original languages. The term 'Sons of God' does not appear to have any +other meaning in the <I>Old</I> Testament, than that of angels. +</P> + +<P> +"Some of the angels, with Lucifer, fell from their high estate in Heaven, +and were banished from Heaven. Scripture clearly proves in many places +that these fallen ones took up their abode 'in the air,' the Devil +becoming, even as the Christ Himself said: 'Prince of the power of the +air.' +</P> + +<P> +"Now both Peter and Jude, in their epistles allude to certain of these +fallen, air-dwelling angels, leaving their first estate, and the mention +of their <I>second</I> fall is sufficiently clear to indicate their +sin—intermarriage with the fairest of the daughters of men. Their name +as given in the old Testament, 'Nephilim' means 'fallen ones.' In their +original condition, as angels in Heaven, they 'neither married nor were +given in marriage.' It is too big a subject, Miss Judith ——." +</P> + +<P> +Hurriedly, eagerly, for she wanted him to continue his topic, she said: +</P> + +<P> +"Call me Ju, or Judith, or Judy, Colonel, and drop the 'Miss,' and do +please go on with this very wonderful subject." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, Ju," he laughed, then continuing his talk, he said: +</P> + +<P> +"It is far too big a subject, Ju, in all its details, to talk of here and +now, but, broadly, the fact seems to me to remain, that fallen angels +assumed human shape, or in some way held illicit intercourse with the +women of the day, a race of giant-like beings resulting. For this foul +sin God would seem to have condemned these doubly sinning fallen angels +to Tartarus, to be reserved unto Judgment. +</P> + +<P> +"'Now as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the +Son of Man,' and——" +</P> + +<P> +Judith Montmarte caught her breath sharply, and, in an unconscious +movement of eager wonder, let her beautiful hand drop upon his wrist, as +she gasped "you don't think—you don't mean—er—er—, tell me, Colonel, +do you mean to say that—" +</P> + +<P> +"I do mean," he replied, "that I am firmly convinced that so far has +demonology increased—the door being opened by modern spiritualism—that +I believe this poor old world of ours is beginning to experience a return +of this association between fallen spirits and the daughters of men. Of +course, I cannot enter into minute detail with <I>you</I>, Ju, but let me +register my firm conviction, that I believe from some such demoniacal +association, there will spring the 'Man of Sin'—'The Antichrist.'" +</P> + +<P> +At that instant, to the utter amaze of both of them, the first luncheon +gong sounded. They had been talking for nearly three hours. With the +request from Judith, and a promise from him to resume the subject at the +first favourable opportunity, they parted. +</P> + +<P> +Intensely, almost feverishly excited, Judith went to her room. Beautiful +in face and form as she was, she was fouler than a Lucretia Borgia, in +soul, in thought. And now, as a foul, wild, mad thought surged through +her brain, she murmured, half-aloud: +</P> + +<P> +"Demon or man, what matters! If I thought I could be the Mother of The +Antichrist, I would—so much do I hate the Nazarene, the Christ—." +</P> + +<P> +She spat through the open window as she uttered the precious, though to +her the hated name of the Son of God. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER. +</H3> + + +<P> +The huge London church was crowded in every part, and men had been +standing in the aisles from the first moment that the service began. +The preacher who had attracted so huge a crowd at two-thirty on a +weekday afternoon, was one of the very youngest of the "coming men" of +the English church. Tall, thin, with a magnificent head crowned by a +mane of hair that was fast becoming prematurely grey, and a face so +intense in its cast, and set with eyes so piercing, that strangers, not +knowing who he was, would almost inevitably turn to look at him when +they passed him on the street. His career had been a strange one. +Ordained at quite an early age, he had been offered a living within six +months of his ordination. He entered upon his charge, preached but +once only, then met with an accident that laid him low for seven years. +The seven years were fruitful years, since, shut up with God and His +word, he had become almost the most remarkable spiritually-minded Bible +student of his time. +</P> + +<P> +</P> + +<P> +The day came, at length, when once more he was strong enough to do +public service, and though without a living, from the moment that he +had preached his first sermon, after his recovery, he found himself in +constant request on every hand. He lived in close communion with God, +and his soul burned within him as he delivered—not an address, not a +sermon, but the <I>message of God</I>. The music of the voluntary was +filling all the church, while the offering was being taken. Then, as +the last well-filled plate was piled on the step of the communion rail, +the voluntary died away in a soft whisper. Amid a tense hush, he rose +to give out the hymn before the sermon. Clear, bell-like, his voice +rang out: +</P> + +<P> +"When I survey the wondrous cross." +</P> + +<P> +The hymn sung, he gave out his text: "Did not I choose you the twelve, +and one of you <I>is</I> a demon." +</P> + +<P> +"You will note," he began "that I have changed the word devil to demon. +There is but one devil in the universe, but there are myriads of +demons, fallen angels like their master, the Devil, only they were +angels of lesser rank." +</P> + +<P> +He paused for one moment, and his eagle eyes swept the sea of faces. +Then in quiet, calm, but incisive tones he asked: +</P> + +<P> +"Who,—what, was Judas Iscariot? Was he <I>human</I>, was he man, as I am, +as you are? or, was he a demon? Jesus Christ our Lord, who knew as +God, as well as man, declared that Judas was a <I>demon</I>—a fallen angel." +</P> + +<P> +The silence was awesome in its tenseness. Every eye was fixed on the +preacher, necks were strained forward, lips were parted—the people +held their breath. +</P> + +<P> +Again that clear, rich bell-like voice rang out in the repeated +question: "Who, I repeat, was Judas Iscariot? Was he a man, in the +usual acceptance of the term, or was he a demon incarnated? What does +the Bible say about him? In considering this I ask you each to put +from your mind, as far as it is possible for you to do so, all +preconceived ideas, all that you have been accustomed to think about +this flame of evil in the story of Christ. +</P> + +<P> +"And first let me say what my own feeling, my own strong personal +conviction is regarding Judas Iscariot. I believe him to have been a +demon incarnated by the power of the Devil, whose intent was to +frustrate God's plans. In all his foul work of destruction and +confusion, the Devil, from the time of the Fall in Eden, has ever been +busy counterfeiting all that God has wrought out for the salvation of +the human race, and as the time approaches for his own utter defeat so +the more cunning will his devices of evil become. +</P> + +<P> +"In the foulness of his thoughts to frustrate God's purposes of +salvation, I believe that when he knew that the Christ had been born, +that God had Himself become incarnate, so that He might deliver +man—for we must never forget that 'God was in Christ reconciling the +world unto Himself—that he, the Devil, incarnated one of his demons, +who afterwards became known as Judas Iscariot, the Betrayer of Christ." +</P> + +<P> +For one instant the preacher paused, for the awed and listening mass of +people who had been literally holding their breath, were compelled to +inbreathe, and the catch of breath was heard through all the place. +</P> + +<P> +"To use a twentieth century expression," he went on, "I may seem to +have 'given myself away' by this statement of my own conviction. But I +am not concerned with the effect, I am concerned only with a great and +important truth, as it seems to me, and a truth which will, I believe, +be curiously, fatefully emphasized in the days near to come, when our +Lord shall have taken away His church at His coming in the air. +</P> + +<P> +"Now let me invite your attention to the actual Scriptures which speak +of Judas Iscariot. But before doing so let me acknowledge my +indebtedness for the inceptive thought of all I have said, and shall +say, to Dr. Joseph A. Seiss, of Philadelphia, in his wondrous lectures +on 'The Revelation.' +</P> + +<P> +"We will turn first again to my text, to the 6th of John, the 70th +verse, 'Did I not choose you the twelve, and one of you <I>is</I> a devil—a +<I>demon</I>? He spake of Judas Iscariot.' The second text I want us to +note is in John 17, verse 12, and again it is Jesus who makes the +solemn declaration: 'Those whom Thou gavest me I have kept, and none of +them is lost, but the <I>Son of Perdition</I>.' The third text I would draw +your attention to is in the 25th verse of Acts 1. It is Peter who is +speaking, at the time of the choosing of another as apostle in Judas's +place; he says: 'Judas, by transgression, fell, that he might go <I>to +his own place</I>.'" +</P> + +<P> +In spite of their intentness in the wondrous personality of the +messenger, and the extraordinary character of his message, not a few +found time to marvel at the facile ease and certainty of touch with +which he handled his little pocket Bible, and turned to the desired +places. As he finished reading the third passage, and laid the open +book down upon the desk, the old hush deepened upon the people. +</P> + +<P> +"Link those three passages together;" he went on, "and you will +instantly see what I meant when I said just now, that I believe Judas +Iscariot to have been an incarnated demon, and incarnated by the Devil +for the one fell purpose of frustrating God's designs for the World's +Salvation through Jesus Christ. +</P> + +<P> +"There is not a single recorded good thought, word, or deed that ever +Judas thought, said, or did. And do please remember that Christ was +never once deceived by him, for in the 64th verse of that 6th of John, +we read 'For Jesus knew <I>from the beginning who</I> they were that +<I>believed not</I>, and <I>who should betray Him</I>.' And knowing everything, +he said of the Betrayer, 'I have chosen—he is a demon.' If our Lord +had said 'one of you <I>has</I> a demon,' the whole statement would have +been different, for many, in Christ's days, we find, were possessed by +demons, and He, by His divine power cast out the demons. But in Judas +we have something different, not a human man in whom a demon has taken +up his abode, but a demon who has had a body given him in which to pass +among men as a man. +</P> + +<P> +"Christ's statement that he was a '<I>Son of Perdition</I>,' is equally +damning as to the real nature of Judas Iscariot. He is called the 'son +of Simon,' as regards the human side of his life, as Jesus was called +'Joseph's son,'—more especially <I>Mary's son</I>. +</P> + +<P> +"But, though, nominally, 'Simon's son,' Judas Iscariot was ever 'a Son +of Perdition.' And because he was this—'a demon,' a Son of Perdition, +Peter, at Pentecost time, speaking in the Holy Ghost, was able to say +that he, Judas, 'went to his own place.' We need spend no time in any +detailed arguments as to whether this 'place' to which he went in the +under-world, was Tartarus or elsewhere, it was '<I>his own place</I>,' <I>the +place of imprisoned demons</I>, the place where other demons who kept not +their first estate, but left their own habitation are reserved in +chains.' Neither Tartarus or Hell were ever 'prepared' for lost +<I>human</I> souls, 'but for demons, and, as a demon, Judas went to his +<I>own</I> place.'" +</P> + +<P> +He paused a moment. His tall, thin form became rigid in the intensity +of his service. In the silence, that deepened, the ticking of the +clock in the front of the gallery, could be heard plainly in every part +of the building. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly he bent his lithe form forward until he leaned far over the +Reading Desk. Then stretching out his arm, the long index finger +pointing forward, he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Listen, friends! Receive this next part of the message, if you will, +if you can. I believe that 'The Man of Sin,' 'The Antichrist,' when he +shall be revealed, will be Judas re-incarnated. +</P> + +<P> +"There can be no doubt, I think, but that any one studying Daniel's +description of the Anti-christ will realize that, in his <I>human</I> +personation, he will necessarily be a Jew, for otherwise, the Jews (who +will have largely returned to their own land, and will have built their +Temple, and resumed their Mosaic service,) would not accept him as +their leader, and make their seven years' covenant with him. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, beloved, my last word is a very solemn one. It is this, our +Lord's Return for His Bride, the Church, is very near,—'He is even at +our doors.' Any day, any hour he may return. We, here, may never +reach the point of the 'Benediction' at the <I>arranged</I> close of this +service, for Jesus may come and call up to Himself everyone of His own +in this place. Then what of you here who are not His? For you, there +will remain nothing but the horrors of the Tribulation, (should you +seek and find God <I>after</I> the Translation of the church.) +</P> + +<P> +"Will you be among the Martyrs of the Tribulation, or of the final +impenitent, rebels who shall be cast into the Hell reserved for the +Devil, for Anti-christ, for the demons; or, blessed thought, will you +here and now yield to Christ, and become the saved of the Lord?" +</P> + +<P> +Amid the most intense hush, he added: "Somewhere, even as I have +preached of him, and as you have listened, there is, I believe, a young +man, of noble stature, exceedingly attractive, wealthy, +fascinating,—bewitching, in fact, since 'all the world will wonder +after him'—yes, somewhere in the world, perhaps in this very city +where we are now gathered, is the young man who, presently, when our +Lord has come, when the Church, and the Holy Spirit are gone, will +manifest himself as the Anti-christ. May God save everyone of us from +<I>his</I> reign, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen!" +</P> + +<P> +A gasping cry of amazed wonder broke from the thousand or more throats. +They bowed, as one man, under the silent request of his spread hands, +they heard the old, old "Benediction" as they had never heard it +before: "May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and +the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit, all unite in leading us into the +Peace of God which passeth all understanding, Amen." +</P> + +<P> +Silent, awed, in many cases speechless, the great congregation passed +out of the several exits of the church. Among them was the woman we +know as Judith Montmarte, and <I>her son</I>. +</P> + +<P> +In spite of their pre-occupation, many of the outgoing congregation +turned to gaze with wondering eyes upon the handsome young fellow who +walked with such a regal air beside his mother, Judith Montmarte. Like +Saul, in Israel, he stood a head and shoulders above the tallest of the +crowd. And he was magnificently proportioned. +</P> + +<P> +On the continent, and in New York and Chicago, Lucien Apleon, was +well-known, but only in certain of the <I>English</I> circles was he known. +Those who knew him, whether men or women, fairly idolized him, in spite +of the impenetrable mystery that enveloped his birth. +</P> + +<P> +For a full year Judith Montmarte had disappeared from the ken of the +world. Where she went, what she did, what happened to her, none ever +knew. +</P> + +<P> +On her re-appearance in her Hungarian home, she called herself Madame +Apleon, and her child was Lucien Apleon. No one ever heard of a +husband, no one knew the history of that year of disappearance. +</P> + +<P> +Lucien Apleon was now about twenty-five years of age, but with the +maturity of face and character of a much older man. He was accounted, +by all who knew him, to be the most accomplished man in <I>everything</I>, +that the world had ever known. The greatest scientists were babes +before him. As artist, sculptor, poet, musician, he could not be +approached by any living being. And there appeared an almost +<I>creative</I> power in all he did, since works of every kind of art <I>grew</I> +under his hand. +</P> + +<P> +Among those who had been in that service, and who turned to look at +Lucien Apleon, was Ralph Bastin. It was his last day in London, +previous to those years of wandering recorded in "The Twinkling of an +Eye." +</P> + +<P> +Often during those years of adventurous wanderings the memory of Ralph +Bastin had recalled that wonderful service. One special moment of its +recall was during that fateful, sacrificial cave scene in that +Carribean Island. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A "SUPER-MAN." +</H3> + + +<P> +London was still in its first throes of wonder, speculation, and, in +some cases, fearsome dread, at the ever increasing discovery that a +number of its citizens had mysteriously disappeared. +</P> + +<P> +"And the most curious part of the whole affair," a prominent London +philanthropist had remarked to an informal gathering of the Committee +of one of the Great Societies, "is this, that whether we look at the +gaps in our own committee, or of any other committee, or of any +church—as far as I have been able to gather, the story is the same, +the missing people are in almost every case those whom, when they were +with us, were least understood by us." +</P> + +<P> +Some such thought had been filling the mind of Ralph Bastin, as he sat +in his Editor's chair in the office of the "Courier." Allied to this +thought there came another—an almost necessary corollary of the +first—namely the new atmosphere of evil, of lawlessness, of wantonness +that pervaded the city. +</P> + +<P> +With a jerk, his mind darted backward over the years to that remarkable +sermon on Judas and the Antichrist. +</P> + +<P> +"It is true, too true," he murmured, "'the mystery of iniquity' that +has long been working undermining the foundations of all true social +and religious safety and solidity, is now to be openly manifested and +perfected. The real Christians, the Church of God, which is the Bride +of Christ, has been silently, secretly caught up to her Lord in the +air. She was 'the salt of the earth,' she kept it from the open +putrefaction that has already, now, begun to work. Then, too, that +wondrous, silent, but mighty influence of restraint upon evil.—The +Holy Spirit, Himself, has left the earth, and now, what? All restraint +gone, the world everywhere open to believe the Antichrist lie, the +delusion. The whole tendency of the teaching, from a myriad pulpits, +during the last few years, has been to prepare the world to receive the +Devil's lie." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment or two he sat in deep thought. Suddenly glancing at the +clock, he murmured: +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder what the other papers are saying this evening." +</P> + +<P> +He rang up his messenger boy on his office phone. The lad came +promptly. Bastin handed him half-a-crown, saying: +</P> + +<P> +"Get me a copy of the last edition of all the chief evening papers, +Charley, and be smart about it, and perhaps you will keep the change +for your smartness." +</P> + +<P> +In six minutes the lad was back with a sheaf of papers. Bastin just +glanced at them separately, noting the several times of their issue, +then with a "Good boy, Charley! Keep the change," he unfolded one of +the papers. +</P> + +<P> +The boy stood hesitatingly, a moment, then said: +</P> + +<P> +"Beg yer pardin', Mr. Bastin, sir, but wot's yer fink as people's +sayin' 'bout the 'Translation o' the Saints,' as it's called?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can't say, I am sure, Charley. The careless, and godless have +already said some very foolish things relative to the stupendous event +that has just taken place, and I think, for a few days, they are likely +to say even more foolish things. What is the special one that you have +heard?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why they sez, sir—its in one o' the <I>h</I>eving peepers, they sez—that +the people wot's missin' hev been carted off in aeroplanes by some o' +the other religionists wot wanted to git rid o' them, an' that the +crank religiouses is all gone to——" +</P> + +<P> +"Where?" smiled Bastin. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think anybody knows where, sir!" +</P> + +<P> +"I do, Charley, and many others to-day, who have been left behind from +that great Translation know—they have been 'caught up' into the air +where Jesus Christ had come from Heaven to summon them to Himself. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Hammond is there, Charley, and that sweet little adopted daughter +of mine, whom you once asked me whether 'angels could be more beautiful +than she was!'" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, yus, sir, I recollecks, sir, she wur too bootiful fur words, she +wur." +</P> + +<P> +There was one moment's pause, then the boy, with a hurried, "it's all +dreadful confuzellin," slipped from the room. +</P> + +<P> +Ralph Bastin opened paper after paper, glanced with the swift, +comprehensive eye of the practised journalist at here and there a +column or paragraph, and was on the point of tossing the last +news-sheet down with the others, on the floor, when his eye caught the +words, "Joyce, Journalist." +</P> + +<P> +The paragraph recorded the finding of the body of the drunken +scoundrel. "From the position of the body," the account read, "and +from the nature of the wounds, it would almost seem as though some +infernal power had hurled him, head on, against the wall of the room. +Whether we believe, or disbelieve the statements concerning the taking +away, by some mysterious Translation process, of a number of persons +from our midst, yet the fact remains that each hour is marked by the +finding of some poor dead creature, under circumstances quite as +tragically mysterious as this case of Joyce the reporter." +</P> + +<P> +For a time Ralph Bastin sat deep in thought. He had not yet written +the article for to-morrow's issue "From the Prophet's chair." He felt +his insufficiency, he realized the need of being God's true witness in +this hour that was ushering in the awful reign of The Antichrist. He +did the <I>best</I> thing, he knelt in prayer, crying: +</P> + +<P> +"O God, I am so ignorant, teach me, give me Thy wisdom in this +momentous hour. If those who cleave to Thee amid this awful time must +seal their witness with death, must face martyrdom, then let me be +counted worthy to die for Thee. In the old days, before yesterday's +great event, all prayer had to be offered to Thee through Jesus Christ. +I know no other way, please then hear my prayer, and accept it, for +Jesus Christ's sake. Amen." +</P> + +<P> +Rising from his knees, with a sense of solemn calm pervading all his +soul, he presently took his pen and began to write rapidly, his mind +seeming, to him, to be consciously under the domination of the divine. +</P> + +<P> +Embodying the various items over which he had so recently mused, as to +the awfulness of the development of evil that would increasingly mark +the near coming days, now that all restraints were taken away, he went +on to show that now that the Devil, who had, for ages, been the Prince +of the Power of the air, with all his foul following of demons, had +been cast down out of that upper realm, where Christ and his translated +saints had taken up their abode, the forces of evil upon the earth +would be magnified and multiplied a million-fold. +</P> + +<P> +"Christ and the Devil," he went on, "never can dwell in the same realm, +hence the coming of Christ into the air meant the descent to earth, of +the Devil and, with him all the invisible hosts of evil. The wildest, +weirdest imagination could not conceive all the horrors that must come +upon those who presently will refuse to wear the 'Mark of the Beast' +and bow to worship him." +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, at this point in his writing, a curious sense of some +presence, other than his own, came over him, and slowly, almost +reluctantly he looked up. +</P> + +<P> +He started visibly, for, seated in the chair on the opposite side of +his desk, was a visitor. The man was the most magnificent specimen of +the human race he had ever seen, a giant, almost, in stature, handsome +to a degree, and with a certain regal air about him. +</P> + +<P> +Bastin had involuntarily leaped to his feet, and now stammered: +</P> + +<P> +"I—er—beg pardon, but I did not hear you come in." +</P> + +<P> +Even as he spoke two things happened. His mind swept backward over the +years to the day of that wonderful Judas sermon he had heard, and with +this recalled memory there came the recollection of his turning to look +into the face of that magnificent looking young man who had been the +cynosure of all eyes as he left the church with his mother. He was +conscious also of a strange uncanny sense that this smiling handsome +man, with mocking, dancing light in his eyes, was no ordinary man. +</P> + +<P> +In that same instant, too, Ralph Bastin knew who his visitor was, since +he had become familiarized by the illustrated papers and magazines, +with the features of "The Genius of the Age"—as he was often +styled—Lucien Apleon. +</P> + +<P> +"My name," said the smiling visitor, "is Lucien Apleon. As editor of a +great journal like the 'Courier,' you know who I am when you know my +name, even though we have never met before. You were so busy, so +absorbed, when I came in that I did not so much as cough to announce my +presence." +</P> + +<P> +Ralph longed to ask him if he came through the door, or how, since he +had heard no sound. But he did not put his question, but replied: +</P> + +<P> +"Who has not heard and read of Lucien Apleon, 'The Genius of the Age,' +sage, savant, artist, sculptor, poet, novelist, a giant in intellect, +the Napoleon of commercial capacity, the croesus for wealth, and master +of all courts and diplomacy. But I had not heard that you were in +England, the last news <I>par'</I> of you which I read, gave you as at that +wonderful city, the New Babylon, more wonderful, I hear, than any of +the former cities of its name and site." +</P> + +<P> +Ralph had talked more than he needed to have done, but he wanted time +to recover his mental balance, for his nerves had been considerably +startled by the suddenness, the uncanniness of his visitor's appearance. +</P> + +<P> +There was a curious quizzical, mocking look in the eyes of Apleon while +Ralph was speaking. The latter noted it and had an uncomfortable +consciousness that the mocking-eyed visitor was reading him like a book. +</P> + +<P> +"I only landed to-day," replied Apleon. +</P> + +<P> +"Steamer?" asked Ralph. +</P> + +<P> +"No, by a new aerial type of my own invention," replied Apleon. "It +brought me from Babylon to London in about as many minutes as it would +have occupied the best aeronaut, days, by the best machines of a year +ago." +</P> + +<P> +He laughed. There was a curious sound in the laugh, it was mocking yet +musical, it was eerie yet merry. Involuntarily Ralph thought of +Grieg's "Dance of the Imps," and Auber's overture "Le Domino Noir." +</P> + +<P> +"But I have not yet explained my object in calling upon you," the +visitor went on. "I have, of course, seen this morning's 'Courier,' +and have been intensely interested, and, will you mind, if I say it, +amused." +</P> + +<P> +"Amused, Mr. Apleon?" cried Ralph. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, intensely amused," went on the mocking-eyed visitor. "I do not +mean with the issue as regards its general contents, it was to the +'Prophet's Chair' column that I alluded." +</P> + +<P> +Ralph, regarding him questioningly, inclined his head, without speaking. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you really believe, Mr. Bastin," went on the visitor, "what you +have written in that column? Do you really believe that a certain +section of Christians, out of every one of the visible Evangelical +churches of this land, and elsewhere, have been translated into the +air? That the Holy Spirit of the Christian New Testament, the third +Person of the Trinity, whom that same New Testament declares was sent +to the earth when the Nazarene Christ went home to His Father—please, +note, Mr. Bastin, that I am using the terms of the orthodox Christian, +enough I tell you frankly I do not believe a word of the jumble which, +for nearly two thousand years, has been accepted as a divinely inspired +Revelation to so-called fallen man?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," replied Ralph, and his voice rang with a rare assurance, and +every line of his face held a wondrous nobility. "Yes, I believe it +all. If I had not been a blind, conceited fool of a sinner, a week +ago, I should have known that all this, and much more was true, and I +should have found my way in penitence and faith to the feet of the +Nazarene, of Jesus Christ the World's Redeemer, and, finding pardon for +my sin, as I should have done, I should have been made one of the +Church of God, as my friend, and Editor-in-chief, Tom Hammond, had +done. And, had I listened to him, I should now have been with those +blessed translated ones of whom I have written in that article of which +you speak, Mr. Apleon. +</P> + +<P> +"I sat in that chair where you now sit," Ralph went en. "Mr. Hammond, +in his eagerness to win me to Christ, leant forward over this desk—he +was sitting where I am—to lay his hand on my wrist, when, with angry +impatience, I leaped to my feet, and declaring that he must be going +out of his head, I swung round on my heel. +</P> + +<P> +"Instantly there fell upon the room an eerie stillness. I swung back +on my heel to reply to my friend, but his chair was empty, he was +gone—gone to the Christ whom he loved, 'caught up in the air' to meet +his Lord, where all those other missing saints have been taken. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes, Mr. Apleon, a thousand times yes, to your question, 'do I +believe all that I have written there in that article.' Here in this +little pamphlet—" He laid his hand, as he spoke, upon a small book +that had been Tom Hammond's, which bore the title "THE SECOND COMING OF +OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. Systematically arranged from passages in the +Holy Scriptures, for Students, Teachers, and others. By the Rev. +Robert Middleton." +</P> + +<P> +"Here, in this little book," he went on, "there is not only set out +with the most luminous clearness, with the actual Bible texts, all that +I have written in that article, but also many other truths and texts +which have already been literally fulfilled during the last forty-eight +hours—even as the book said that they would be." +</P> + +<P> +With the old mocking, quizzical smile, the handsome Apleon interrupted +him, asking: +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean by the <I>real</I> Church of God? The Romish Church, The +Greek Church, The Anglican Church or any one of the multitude of +dissenting churches?" +</P> + +<P> +It was Ralph's turn to smile now, as he said: +</P> + +<P> +"None of those churches could be called THE CHURCH OF GOD. The <I>true</I>, +the <I>real</I> church was composed of true believers, men and women who had +been born again by the Spirit of God, and who, numbered among every +section of so-called Christians—and some who were wholly +unattached—made up in their wide-world entirety the true Church of +God, the Bride of Christ." +</P> + +<P> +"And what," asked Apleon, "of the rest, the vast bulk of the +worshippers at the various churches? What is their fate to be?" +</P> + +<P> +"God only knows!" replied Bastin. "Some, at least, have already +sought, and found God, or believe they have, even as I have sought, and +believe that I have found God. But the vast bulk of the people already +seem to be rollicking in a curious sense of non-restraint. I remember +some years ago, hearing a lady say that visiting the houses of one of +the worst streets in Winchester, and speaking to the people as to their +eternal welfare, she found one woman particularly hardened. To this +woman she said: 'But, my dear sister, think of what it will be to be +eternally lost, to be separated from God, and from all that is pure and +good, for ever, and in a state and place which the Bible calls Hell.' +And the woman laughed, as she said: 'Well, there's one thing, I shall +not be lonely there, for I shall have all my neighbours around me, for +every one in this street is on the same track as me.'" +</P> + +<P> +A sardonic smile curled the full lips of Apleon, as he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Poor deluded soul! For if there is such a place as that Hell, that +underworld of lost souls of which your Bible speaks, and declares that +it was prepared for the Devil and his angels, and that woman and her +neighbours find themselves there, they will realize that hell, for its +lost, is the loneliest spot in the universe, since each soul will hate +the other and will live alone, apart in its own hideous realm of +anguish and remorse." +</P> + +<P> +Lifting his eyes to his visitor's face, as the latter delivered himself +to this strange speech, Bastin was startled to note the expression on +the handsome face. The eyes, unutterably sad for one instant, turned +suddenly to savage hate, the mouth was as cruel as death, the eyes grew +baleful, like the eyes of a snake that is being whipped to death. +</P> + +<P> +He was startled even more by the tones of his voice when he said: +</P> + +<P> +"And what of the Anti-christ of whom you have spoken and written? Do +you believe what you have written?" +</P> + +<P> +"I most certainly do," replied Ralph. +</P> + +<P> +Again the sardonic smile filled all Apleon's face as he returned: +</P> + +<P> +"Then if all that you say and write be true, as regards the coming +Anti-christ, and you continue to wear the late editor's mantle when you +write 'The Prophet's chair' articles, how long do you suppose that that +powerful <I>super</I>-man, the Anti-christ of your belief, will let you +alone. If he is to be so powerful, and if the devil is to energize +him, as you say;—even as you profess to believe that he has called +into being—is now actually dwelling on the earth, though invisible, +and all his angels (demons, I believe they are called in the Bible) are +moving about invisibly among the people on the earth, among the people +of this wonderful London, if all this, I say, be so, how long do you +suppose you will be allowed, by his Satanic Majesty, to ply your trade +of warner of the peoples? Why, man, your life is not worth the snap of +a finger?" +</P> + +<P> +Ralph smiled. The smile transfigured his face, even as the same sort +of smile transfigured the faces of the martyrs of old time, beginning +with Stephen. +</P> + +<P> +"I care not how long I live," he replied. "The only care I have now is +to be true to my convictions, true to my God." +</P> + +<P> +The telephone rang at that instant. "Excuse me one moment, Mr. +Apleon," he said, turning to the instrument. +</P> + +<P> +There followed a few moments exchanges on the 'phone, then replacing +the receiver he turned. But his visitor was gone. +</P> + +<P> +"That's curious!" he muttered. "I did not hear a sound of his going, +any more than I did of his coming. Uncanny, eerie, creepy, almost!" +</P> + +<P> +There was a tap at the door. "Come in!" he called. The messenger boy, +Charley, entered with a sheaf of proof galleys. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you see that tall gentleman pass out, Charley?" he asked. "Did he +go down stairs, or into one of the other offices?" +</P> + +<P> +"Tall gennelman, sir? There aint bin no one come along this way, sir, +nobody couldn't pass my little hutch wivout me a seein' on 'em. I +ain't been out no wheres, an' I knows no one aint come by—least ways, +not this way, not past my place." +</P> + +<P> +"If any tall gentleman does come up, Charley, show him in to me, at +once please." +</P> + +<P> +Ralph had had time, during Charley's extended answer, to recover +himself from the amaze that the boy's first sentence has produced in +him. +</P> + +<P> +"That's all, Charley!" he added, turning to his desk. +</P> + +<P> +The boy gave him a curious, puzzled look, lingered for the fraction of +a second, then slowly turned and left the office. +</P> + +<P> +When the door had closed behind him, Ralph, who had <I>felt</I> all that had +passed in that moment of the boy's hesitancy, though he had purposely +refrained from looking up, lifted his head and glanced around him. +</P> + +<P> +"If I did not know better," he murmured, "I should suppose that the +whole incident was but a dream, or hallucination." +</P> + +<P> +A perplexed look filled his face, as he continued: +</P> + +<P> +"What does it all mean?" +</P> + +<P> +Again, in a flash, the memory of that Judas sermon swept back over him, +and the startling statement recurred to him "Somewhere, even as I have +preached of him, and as you have listened, there is, I believe, a young +man of noble stature, exceedingly attractive, wealthy, fascinating, +bewitching in fact, since 'all the world will wonder after him'—yes, +somewhere in the world, perhaps in this very city where we are now +gathered, is the young man who, presently, when our Lord has come, when +the Church, and the Holy Spirit are gone, will manifest himself as the +Anti-christ." +</P> + +<P> +Coming back at this particular moment, Ralph asked himself: "Is Lucien +Apleon the Anti-christ?" +</P> + +<P> +He paused an instant, then, as a sudden startling sense of assurance of +the fact swept into his soul he cried: +</P> + +<P> +"He is! I have seen the Anti-christ!" +</P> + +<P> +For nearly an hour he sat on his chair, his mind wrapped in deep +thought, and occasionally referring to a book of prophecy which Tom +Hammond had evidently deeply studied. +</P> + +<P> +At the end of the hour, he bowed his head upon his hands, and held +silent communion with God, seeking wisdom to write and speak and live +the Truth. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +"TO THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL" +</H3> + + +<P> +The next day was Sunday. It was also the first Sunday of the month. +As he bathed and dressed, Ralph found himself wondering whether the +churches and chapels would be filled, whether the awe and fear that had +fallen upon so many Christian professors during the first hours after +the "Rapture," would drive them to the churches. +</P> + +<P> +"The first of the month," he mused. "The Lord's Supper has been the +order of the day in most places. I wonder if it will be celebrated +to-day?" +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Until He come</I>!" he mused on. "He <I>has</I> come, so that the Lord's +Supper, as part of the worship of the churches is concerned, can have +no further meaning. Will any attempt be made to celebrate it, to-day, +I wonder?" +</P> + +<P> +Every available moment of the fateful week that had just passed he had +occupied in deep reading the prophetic scriptures referring to The +Coming of the Lord, and the events which follow. He had also studied +deeply every book on the subject which he could secure, that was likely +to help him to understand the position of affairs. Again and again, he +had said to himself: "How could I have been such a fool? a journalist, +a bookman, a lover of research, professing to have the open mind which +should be the condition of every man of my trade, and yet never to have +studied my Bible, never to have sought to know what all the startling +events of the past decade, pointed to. Surely, surely, Tom Carlyle was +right about we British—'mostly fools.'" +</P> + +<P> +At breakfast he ate and drank only sufficient to satisfy the sense of +need. Previous to "The Rapture" he had been a bit of an Epicure, now +he scarcely noted what he ate or drank. +</P> + +<P> +Almost directly his meal was finished, he left the house. The +journalistic instinct was strong enough within him to make him desire +to see what changes, if any, would be apparent in London on this first +Sunday after the momentous event that had so recently come upon the +world. +</P> + +<P> +Turning out of the quiet square where his lodgings were, he was +instantly struck by a new tone in the streets. There was an utter +absence of the old-time "Sabbath" sense. +</P> + +<P> +The gutterways were already lined with fruit and other hawkers, their +coarse voices, crying their wares, making hideous what should have been +a Sunday quiet. +</P> + +<P> +It was barely ten, yet already many of the Tea Rooms were open, and +most of them seemed thronged, whole families, and pleasure-parties +taking breakfast, evidently. +</P> + +<P> +He passed a large and popular theatre, across the whole front of which +was a huge, hand-painted announcement, "Matinee at 2, this afternoon. +Performance to-night 7-45. New Topical song entitled "The Rapture," on +the great event of the week. Living Pictures at both performances: +"The Flight of the Saints." +</P> + +<P> +Ralph, in his amaze, had paused to read the full contents of the +announcement. He shuddered as he took in the full import of the +blasphemy. Surveying the crowd that stood around the notice, he was +struck by the composition of the little mob. It was anything but a +low-class crowd. Many of them were evidently of the upper middle +class, well-dressed, and often intellectual-looking people. +</P> + +<P> +He was turning to leave the spot, when a horsey-looking young fellow +close to him, in a voice loud enough to be heard by the whole crowd—he +evidently meant that it should—cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if it's true that all the long-faced puritans have been carted +off, vamoused, kidnapped, "Rapturized," as they call it, and that now +there's to be no Theatre Censor, and every one can do as they like, +well then, good riddance to the kill-joys, I say." +</P> + +<P> +"And so say all of us," sang a voice, almost everyone present joining +in the song. +</P> + +<P> +When twenty yards off Ralph could hear the blasphemy ringing out "The +Devil's a jolly good fellow, and so say all of us!" +</P> + +<P> +"What will London be like in a month's time!" he mused. +</P> + +<P> +He moved on quickly, but even as he went the thought thrust itself upon +him, that half London, for some reason or the other, was abroad in the +streets unusually early. His own objective was a great Nonconformist +church, where one of London's most popular and remarkable preachers had +ministered. He had been one of the comparatively few whose ministry +had been characterized by a close adherence to the Word of God, and an +occasional solemn word of expository warning and exhortation <I>anent</I> +the "Coming of the Lord." +</P> + +<P> +Ralph was within a stone's throw of the great building when the +squeaking tones of Punchinello, reached his ears, while a deep roar of +many laughing voices accompanied the squeakings. A moment more and he +was abreast of a crowd of many hundreds of people gathered around the +Punch and Judy show. +</P> + +<P> +Sick in soul at all that told of open blasphemy everywhere around him, +he hurried on, not so much as casting an eye at the show, though it was +impossible for him to miss the question and answer that rang out from +the show. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, now Mr. Punch, where's your poor wife? Have you done away with +her?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," screamed the hook-nosed puppet, "Not me, I aint done away with +her, she done away with herself, she's gone and got 'Rapturized.'" +</P> + +<P> +Then, above the ribald laughter of the crowd, the squeaking puppet sang: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Oh, p'raps she is, p'raps she aint,<BR> + An' p'raps she's gone to sea,<BR> +Or p'raps she's gone to Brigham Young<BR> + A Mormonite to be."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Ralph shivered as with chill, as he went up the steps of the great +church to which he had been aiming. It was filling fast. Five minutes +after he entered, the doors had to be closed, there was not even +standing room. +</P> + +<P> +He swept the huge densely-packed building with his keen eyes. Many +present were evidently accustomed to gather there, though the bulk were +curious strangers. A strange hush was upon the people, a +half-frightened look upon many faces, and a general air of suspense. +</P> + +<P> +Once, someone in the gallery cracked a nut. The sound was almost as +startling as a pistol shot, and hundreds of faces were turned in the +direction of the sound. +</P> + +<P> +Ralph noticed that the Communion table, on the lower platform under the +rostrum was covered with white, and evidently arranged as for the +Lord's Supper. +</P> + +<P> +Exactly at eleven, someone emerged from a vestry and passed up the +rostrum stairs. A moment later the man was standing at the desk. Many +instantly recognized him. It was the Secretary of the Church. +</P> + +<P> +A dead hush fell upon the people. +</P> + +<P> +The face of the man was deathly pale, his eyes were dull and sunken. +Twice his lips parted and he essayed to speak, but no sound escaped +him. The hush deepened. +</P> + +<P> +Then, at last, low and husky came the words "My dear friends—for I +recognize some who have been wont to gather here on the Sundays, though +the majority are strangers, I think." +</P> + +<P> +His eyes slowly swept the great congregation. "We have, I believe, +many of us, gathered here this morning more by a new, strange, common +instinct, than by mere force of Sunday habit. Yet, I cannot but think +that many of us, solemnized by the events that have transpired since +last Sunday, have met more in the Spirit of real seeking after God than +ever we have done before." +</P> + +<P> +A few voices joined in a murmur of assent, but something like a ripple +of mocking laughter came from others. And one voice in the gallery +laughed outright—it was the man who had cracked the nut. +</P> + +<P> +Momentarily unnerved by that laughter the speaker paused. Then +recovering himself he went on: +</P> + +<P> +"Our pastor has gone; the Puritans (as we were wont to call them) are +gone; and we know now—now that it is too late for those of us who are +'left'—that they have been 'caught up' into the air, to be with their +Lord forever." +</P> + +<P> +He glanced down at the white-draped communion table, as he continued: +</P> + +<P> +"Our church officer has performed his usual monthly office, and has +spread the Table for the Lord's Supper, but it dawns upon us, friends, +how useless, how empty is the symbol since it was only ordained 'until +He should come.' He has come, and we, the unready, have been left +behind." +</P> + +<P> +"Tommy Rot!" +</P> + +<P> +The expression came angrily, sneeringly from the man in the gallery, +the man who cracked that nut, and who had laughed so boisterously a +moment ago. +</P> + +<P> +Many eyes were turned up to the man, but no voice of reprimand came, no +cry of "shame!" or of "Turn him out," was raised. +</P> + +<P> +All that had happened during the days of the past week, had served to +fill many of the people gathered there that morning, with a curious +mingling of doubt, hesitancy, fearsomeness, and uncertainty, as well as +an unconscious growth of a new strange skepticism, and a carelessness +that almost amounted to recklessness. +</P> + +<P> +"As it is with many more here, this morning," the Secretary went on, +"some members of my family have gone, been caught up—" +</P> + +<P> +"Aviated!" laughed a ribald voice, and this time it came from another +part of the building. +</P> + +<P> +Disregarding the interruption, the secretary went on: +</P> + +<P> +"My wife has gone—" His voice shook with the deep emotion that +stirred him, and for a moment he was too moved to speak. Then +recovering himself with an effort he continued: +</P> + +<P> +"My daughter, too, who against my wish had offered herself as a Foreign +Missionary, has gone. Both wife and daughter lived in the spirit of +expectancy of the Coming of Christ into the air. Now they are with +Him, to be with Him for ever." +</P> + +<P> +The ribald voice that had last interrupted, again broke into the +Secretary's touching words. This time the interrupter roared out a +stanza or two of a wretched song: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Will no one tell me where they're gone,<BR> +My bursting heart with grief is torn,<BR> +I wish I never had been born,<BR> + I've lost, I've lost my vife."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +A hundred or more voices roared with laughter. The devil of blasphemy +was growing bolder. +</P> + +<P> +But in the silence that immediately followed the laughter, the +Secretary went on again: +</P> + +<P> +"I have been a deeply <I>religious</I> man, even as Nicodemus and Paul were, +before their conversion. But now that it is too late to share in the +bliss of the glorious Translation, I have discovered that Religion, +without Christ, without the Regeneration of the New Birth, is evidently +useless, otherwise, I, with scores of others in this church, this +morning, who have, for years, listened to a full-orbed gospel from our +God-filled translated pastor, would be now with those of our loved ones +who have 'ascended up on high.'" +</P> + +<P> +He paused for the briefest fraction of a second, a look of keenest +anguish filled his face, his eyes grew moist with unshed tears, and +were full of appeal, of enquiry, as he swept the great assembly, crying: +</P> + +<P> +"There must be thousands upon thousands left in our land, who, like +myself, deceived themselves, and thus, unwittingly deceived others, and +in whose souls there rises the cry: 'How can we find God? Who will +show us the way?' +</P> + +<P> +"Friends, I have searched my New Testament from end to end. I have +been up two whole nights, and I have read the New Testament through +from Matthew to Revelation, twice. But I can find no provision for the +position I find myself in. I can find no guidance as to how to be +saved. The whole situation is too solemn, too awful for any fooling. +Does anyone here know? Can anyone here tell us how we may find God, +now that the salt of the earth—the real Christians are gone, and now, +too, that the Holy Spirit who, of old time—not yet a full week, but it +seems an eternity—led souls to God through Christ." +</P> + +<P> +There was something so solemn, so pathetic in the man's manner and +utterance, that even the ribald fools who had previously interrupted, +were silent. +</P> + +<P> +The hush was intense. The ticking of the clock could be heard +distinctly. +</P> + +<P> +Impelled by a power which he could not have defined or described, Ralph +Bastin rose to his feet. +</P> + +<P> +The hush deepened. Then a voice broke the silence, crying: +</P> + +<P> +"Bastin, editor of 'The Courier'!" +</P> + +<P> +He was very pale, but the light of a rare courage flashed in his eyes. +He acknowledged the recognition of himself by an inclination of the +head. Then amid a strange hush he began to speak, his voice husky, at +first, rapidly clearing as he went on: +</P> + +<P> +"Friends, I take it that this is the most momentous Sunday that has +ever been, since the first one—the day of the resurrection of the +Christ. Our friend who has just spoken has surely voiced the question +of many hearts here this morning, and many other troubled hearts the +wide world over. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me say, right here, that my friend and colleague, Mr. Tom Hammond, +the originator and late editor of 'The Courier,' was in the very act of +explaining the wonderful, expected return of Christ (expected by him +though scoffed at by myself) when he was 'caught up' from my very +presence, and then I knew what a fool I had been to neglect God and His +salvation." +</P> + +<P> +The nut-cracking interrupter in the gallery, with a burst of laughter, +began mockingly to sing the old revival chorus, "Come to Jesus, come to +Jesus, come to Jesus, just now, just——" +</P> + +<P> +"Silence! you blasphemous, ribald fool!" The words leaped from the +lips of Ralph Bastin, in a tone of command that literally awed the +interrupter. The effect, too, upon the hesitating, vacillating mass of +people was, for the moment at least, to arouse their sympathy with +Ralph, and a little murmur of applause followed. +</P> + +<P> +At the same time a soldier in uniform, a man of giant proportions, who +was sitting almost immediately behind the disturber, rose in his seat, +and addressing the man in front of him, cried, in a stentorian voice: +</P> + +<P> +"See here, mouthy, we're about fed up with your gas, so if you give us +so much as one wag of that cursed red rag of yours, I'll pick you up +and snap you in half across my knee, as I would snap a stick." +</P> + +<P> +This time the applause broke out all over the crowded church. When it +ceased, Ralph standing straight as a larch, and looking up at the +soldier, gave a military salute, as he said: "Thank you, brave soldier." +</P> + +<P> +Coming back to his audience, he went on, as if there had been no +interruption: +</P> + +<P> +"I, too, like the gentleman who addressed us just now, have read the +whole of the Bible through, and the New Testament <I>twice</I>, and I can +find no <I>definite</I> provision or Revelation for those who are left +behind—that is as to the <I>how</I>, I mean, of salvation. Yet that there +are to be many saved during the next seven years, is evident, since +there is to be a great multitude come out of <I>The Great Tribulation</I>, +and thousands of these will be martyrs for God, refusing to wear the +Mark of the Beast. +</P> + +<P> +"In one of the pamphlets I have been studying on 'The second coming of +the Lord,' I have found this statement, that Christ, during His +ministry, preached the Gospel <I>of the Kingdom</I>, which is explained as +referring to the fact that, as a Jew, as the Messiah, He came to His +own people the Jews, the chosen <I>earthly</I> people of God, and that if +they would have accepted Him as their Messiah, His Kingdom—with +Himself reigning as King—might have been set up there and then. But +they rejected Him, yes, even when Peter, at Pentecost, after the +Ascension of Christ, made the final offer in those wonderful words of +his. +</P> + +<P> +"As a nation, they rejected Him, rejected their Lord and King, and +henceforth, until He should come again. (He came last week, as we +know, now that it is too late for us to share in the glory of that +coming.) Until that coming, as I said, the Gospel to be preached was +to be the 'Gospel of the Grace of God,' and not the 'Gospel of the +Kingdom.' 'The Gospel of the Grace of God,' included all peoples, +Gentile as well as Jew, while 'the Gospel of the Kingdom,' in its first +preaching, was especially a message to the Jew. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, friends, since there appears to be no <I>special</I> Revelation left +as to how men and women are to be saved, I have been forced to the +conclusion that we must go back to the Old Testament word: 'Seek ye the +Lord'—'Call upon the Name of the Lord'—'Trust ye in the Lord'—'Come +now and let us reason, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, +they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they +shall be as wool.' 'The Lord is nigh unto them who are of broken +heart, and <I>saveth</I> such as be of a <I>Contrite</I> spirit.' +</P> + +<P> +"I have taken my own stand upon this, that God, the God of the Old +Testament, is the same God, who pities like a father, and that if we +confess our sin, and witness a true confession, He will forgive us our +sin, and though we can never be part of that wondrous <I>Bride</I> of +Christ, whom, last week He caught up to Himself into the Heavenlies, +yet we may be eternally saved. And, friends, whether I am right or +wrong, I am daily pleading the Name of Jesus Christ in all my +approaches to God. I plead the Blood of Jesus Christ, and the power of +that Blood, to save me; for, as far as I understand myself, in this +matter, my belief, my trust is the same as that which inspired the +saints who were translated at the 'Rapture'—as that event has come to +be called. +</P> + +<P> +"In my studies during the past week—would God I had been wise, and +given myself to all this a month ago, I should then have shared in the +glory of that Rapturous event of which all our minds are so full. +</P> + +<P> +"But, as I was saying, in my studies during the past week, I have seen +that in Revelation Seven, in the account of those who are to be saved +<I>during</I> the seven years of the present dispensation, (and which has +just begun) that they 'have washed their robes and made them white <I>in +the blood of the Lamb</I>.' So that though I am not able to reduce my +standing to an actual theological position—statement—yet I pin my +soul, my faith on the Eternal character of God, and on the efficacy of +the Blood of Jesus, as shown in Revelation Seven, fourteen." +</P> + +<P> +He paused for an instant, and his eyes swept the great assembly +sorrowfully, sadly, as he went on: +</P> + +<P> +"But it is forced upon me that what is done by us, in this matter of +seeking God, must be done by us <I>now, at once</I>. Every hour increases +the danger of delay because the powers of evil, of the Antichrist, are +already growing more and more rampant, more and more pronounced. +Presently, friends, we know not but that any hour or even moment now, +the awful delusion of the Antichrist lie, may be actually formulated +into speech and print, and it will be so almost universally absorbed by +mankind, and its influence be so pervading, so saturating, in every +class, of society, that it will every hour become harder, more +difficult for the individual soul to turn to God." +</P> + +<P> +He paused again for one instant. Then startlingly, suddenly, the words +"Great God!" leaped from his lips. They sounded like a mighty sob. +</P> + +<P> +"Great God!" he repeated with an anguish that awed the people. "The +great mass of people in London, are already mocking God. They laugh at +the notion of there being a God, of there being any Retribution. The +great mass of the people are ripe for anything, even for a public, +official denial of the very existence of God. Deluded, they will +believe any lie, THE FOUL LIE. +</P> + +<P> +"How long is it since, in France, in the Revolution, the leading men, +the 'flower' of that capricious nation, carried in triumph in grand +procession the most beautiful harlot of Paris, to the Cathedral of +Notre Dame, and, unveiling and kissing her before the high altar, +proclaimed her as the 'Goddess of Reason,' exhorting the multitude of +people to forget all the childish things that they had been taught as +to the thunders of the wrath of God, for God was not, and had never +been. +</P> + +<P> +"And all that happened while the 'salt of the earth,' was abroad, and +while that great, divine restrainer of evil, the Holy Spirit, the third +Person of the Trinity, was still upon the earth exercising His +restraint. +</P> + +<P> +"And, in a week from to-day, I believe it will be absolutely impossible +to get a gathering like this. The world, the Flesh, the Devil, the +Antichrist, will have almost absolute sway, and if any of us will live +to God, we must be prepared to suffer the direst persecution, and all +the horrors of the Great Tribulation, with its thousands of martyrs, +will be the portion of those who will cleave to God, and flout +Antichrist." +</P> + +<P> +A deep, sullen growl, like that of some huge savage beast, rose here +and there from a number of dissenters to these predictions. +</P> + +<P> +Ralph lifted his head proudly, and fearlessly for his God, as he cried: +</P> + +<P> +"There rises the first growl of the slumbering demon of Antichrist, +which, only too soon, shall possess almost the whole world. Soon, a +year, or two, less than that, doubtless. Antichrist will dominate the +earth's peoples. None will be able to trade, to buy or sell, unless +they bear on their forehead or their <I>right</I> hand, the Mark of the +Beast. What will that mark be? I cannot tell. I do not know, no one +save Antichrist, and the Devil who has incarnated him, can as yet know, +I think." +</P> + +<P> +Again that growl rose from the throats of some of the listeners. This +time it was deeper, fuller more voices joined in it, and the savage +note was more pronounced. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, a mighty roar of thousands of voices, mingled with the blare +of brass instruments penetrated into the building from the street. +There followed, instantly, a general rising to their feet, and a rush +of the people to the exits. The crush at the exits was terrible. +Screams of women mingled with the hoarse cursings of men—men who had +never uttered an oath before, found their mouth filled with hideous, +blasphemous oaths. It was as if the very devil himself had suddenly +possessed the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +Ralph found himself alongside the Secretary of the church, the man who +had preceded him in speaking. The pair watched and listened for a +moment while noisily, slowly, painfully the people passed out of the +building. +</P> + +<P> +Involuntarily there sprang to Ralph's lips, and, before he realized it, +he was uttering the words: +</P> + +<P> +"The whole herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and was +choked." +</P> + +<P> +The two men were strangers, yet as they turned and faced each other, by +some common impulse they clasped hands. For one instant it looked as +though each would have spoken. Then, as though some strange power had +tied their tongues, they moved on silently, side by side, down the wide +aisle of the church, and passed out through the entrance doors of the +now empty building. +</P> + +<P> +The streets were filled with surging masses of people, and there was a +glare of ruddy flames, while dense volumes of smoke poured into the +upper air from the first of two huge cars drawn by hundreds of excited +men, boys, and even women and girls. +</P> + +<P> +In the center of the platform of the first car was a huge, altar-like +construction in polished iron or steel. The center of the altar was +evidently a deep hollow cauldron, into which a score of men, costumed +as satyrs, were pitchforking Bibles. The four sides of the +Altar-cauldron had open bars, so that, fanned on every side by the +double draught of the car's motion, and the fairly stiff breeze that +was blowing, the furnace roared fiercely, fed, as it incessantly was by +the copies of God's Word. +</P> + +<P> +Hundreds of wildly-excited men and women—many seemed +semi-drunken—attired in every conceivable grotesqueness of costume, +and forming a kind of open-air fancy-dress ball, disported themselves +shamelessly about the cauldron car, and the triumphal car that followed +in its wake. +</P> + +<P> +The latter was a gorgeous structure, finished in gold, purple, and +imitation white marble. Its center was a kind of <I>tableaux vivant</I>. +On one side was an effigy of a parsonic kind of man, crucified head +downwards upon a cross. A second side showed a theatre front with a +staring announcement "<I>seven</I> day performances." A third side showed a +figure of "Bacchus" crowned with vine-leaves and grape-bunches. A +fourth side showed an entrance to a Law Court, with an announcement: +"Closed Eternally, for since there is no marriage, there is no divorce." +</P> + +<P> +Above all this was a golden throne, and in a deep purple-plush-covered +chair sat a florid, coarsely-beautiful woman, with long hair of golden +hue hanging down upon her shoulders and blowing in the breeze. She was +literally naked, save for a ruffle of pink muslin about her waist. +Upon her head was a crown, in her right hand she held a gilded crozier. +</P> + +<P> +The most wanton, hideous licentiousness was the order of the hour among +the mob of fancy-costumed people. +</P> + +<P> +Ralph Bastin and his companion followed in the wake of the foaming, +raging sea of semi-mad people. +</P> + +<P> +"The French Revolution business over again," said Ralph—he had to +shout into his friend's ear to be heard. +</P> + +<P> +His companion nodded an assent, then bawled back: +</P> + +<P> +"Whither are they bound, I wonder?" +</P> + +<P> +Ralph pointed to a banner bearing the inscription. "To St. Pauls." +</P> + +<P> +The procession swept on, and seven minutes later the cars were rounded +up in front of the open space before the Cathedral. +</P> + +<P> +A score of policemen had managed to muster on the upper step of the +flight. But the rush of the mob was irresistible. They took entire +possession of the steps and all the open space around even to the head +of Ludgate Hill. +</P> + +<P> +Ralph had got separated from his companion, and found himself swept +close up to the great triumphal car. Above him seated smilingly on her +purple throne, in all her shameless nakedness, was the beautiful form +of the foul souled harlot. Her gilded crozier was upheld between her +naked knees, and now, in her right hand she held a goblet of champagne, +just passed up to her. +</P> + +<P> +A bugle sounded for silence. The hush was instantaneous. Then as she +held the goblet high aloft, her clear, shrill voice rang out in the +toast she gave: +</P> + +<P> +"To the World, the Flesh, and the Devil!" +</P> + +<P> +She drained the sparkling draught, and tossed the goblet down into the +upraised hand of a handsome, but dissolute-looking man, who, attired in +the theatrical idea of Mephistopheles, appeared to be a kind of Master +of Ceremonies. +</P> + +<P> +A mighty roar of applause, mingled with cries of "Dolly Durden! Dear +little Dolly Durden!" accompanied the drinking of the toast. +</P> + +<P> +Again the bugle rang out for silence, and amid a hush as before, +Mephistopheles shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"The Sunday of the Puritans is dead and <I>damned</I>! Their Bible is +burned and a dead letter!" +</P> + +<P> +He pointed, as he uttered the last sentence, to the Satyrs who were +piling the last of their stock of Bibles into the fiery furnace of the +cauldron-altar. +</P> + +<P> +His blasphemies were greeted with a roar of applause. Then, as he +obtained a comparative silence by the raising of his hand, he yelled: +</P> + +<P> +"To Hyde Park." +</P> + +<P> +The band struck up "Good St. Anthony," and the monster procession, +swept down Ludgate Hill, hundreds of throats belching out the words of +the song, to the music of the band: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"St. Anthony sat on a lowly stool,<BR> + A large black book he held in his hand,<BR> +Never his eyes from the page he took,<BR> + With steadfast soul the page he scanned.<BR> +The Devil was in his best humour that day,<BR> + That ever his Highness was known to be in,--<BR> +That's why he sent out his imps to play<BR> + With sulphur, and tar, and pitch, and resin:<BR> +They came to the saint in a motley crew,<BR> + Twisted and twirl'd themselves about,--<BR> +Imps of every shape and hue,<BR> + A devilish, strange, and rum-looking rout.<BR> +Yet the good St. Anthony kept his eyes<BR> + So firmly fixed upon his book,<BR> +Shouts nor laughter, sighs nor cries,<BR> + Never could win away his look."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Verse after verse belched forth from the now more or less raucous +throats of the blasphemous mob, until, with unholy unctiousness, +reaching the last verse but one, they screamed laughingly, vilely: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"A thing with horny eyes was there--<BR> + With horny eyes just like the dead,<BR> +While fish-bones grew instead of hair<BR> + Upon his bald and skinless head.<BR> +Last came an imp--how unlike the rest,--<BR> + A lovely-looking female form,<BR> +And while with a whisper his cheek she press'd,<BR> + Her lips felt downy, soft, and warm;<BR> +As over his shoulder she bent, the light<BR> + Of her brilliant eyes upon his page<BR> +Soon filled his soul with mild delight,<BR> + And the good old chap forgot his age.<BR> +And the good St. Anthony boggled his eyes<BR> + So quickly o'er his old black book,--<BR> +Ho! Ho! at the corners they 'gan to rise,<BR> + And he couldn't choose but have a look.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"There are many devils that walk this world,<BR> + Devils so meagre and devils so stout,<BR> +Devils that go with their tails uncurl'd,<BR> + Devils with horns and devils without.<BR> +Serious devils, laughing devils,<BR> + Devils black and devils white,<BR> +Devils uncouth, and devils polite.<BR> + Devils for churches, devils for revels,<BR> +Devils with feathers, devils with scales,<BR> + Devils with blue and warty skins,<BR> +Devils with claws like iron nails,<BR> + Devils with fishes' gills and fins;<BR> +Devils foolish, devils wise,<BR> + Devils great, and devils small,--<BR> +But a laughing woman with two bright eyes<BR> + Proves to be the worst devil of them all."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It was all of Hell, Hellish, and should have proved conclusively, it +proof had been desired, that with the translation of the Church, and +the flight of the Holy Spirit, the last restraint upon man's natural +love of lawlessness had been taken away. +</P> + +<P> +Sweeping westwards, the hideous, blasphemous procession was continually +augmented by crowds that swarmed up from side-streets, and fell-in in +the rear of the marching throng. +</P> + +<P> +Somewhere on the route, owing to a kind of backwash of the surging +people, Ralph Bastin and the Secretary of the Church had become +separated. At Picadilly circus they came suddenly face to face again. +</P> + +<P> +"What is this foul, blasphemous movement? What does it mean?" asked +the Secretary. "Is this a beginning of <I>organized</I> lawlessness on the +part of the Anti-christ?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think not," replied Ralph. "I should rather say that it was a bit +of wanton outrage of all the decencies of ordinary life, and arranged +by some of the rude fellows—male and female—of the baser sort. You +noticed, of course, that most of those immediately connected with the +two cars, looked like the drinking, smoking, sporting fellows who are +the <I>habitues</I> of the music-halls and the promenades of the theatres." +</P> + +<P> +An uproarious cheering of the mighty throng interrupted Ralph for a +moment. Only those well to the front of the procession could know the +cause of the cheering, but the whole mass of people joined in it. As +the roar died away, Ralph Bastin took up the broken thread of his reply: +</P> + +<P> +"Yet, for all I have just said, I feel it in my bones as Mrs. Beecher +Stowe's old negress 'mammy' used to say, that this foul demonstration +on this golden Sunday morning, is the unauthorized unofficial beginning +of the Anti-christ movement." +</P> + +<P> +There was a couple of hundred yards between the tail of the actual +procession, and Ralph and his companion. Hundreds of people thronged +the sidewalks, but the road was fairly clear, and along the gutter-way +there swept a gang of boys with coarse, raucous laughter, +kicking—football fashion—two or three of the half-burned Bibles that +had fallen from the cauldron-altar on the car. +</P> + +<P> +The church Secretary visibly shuddered at the sacrilege. A pained look +shot into Ralph Bastin's face, as he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Such wanton, open sacrilege as that could only have become possible by +the gradual decay of reverence for the word of God, brought about +largely by the so-called 'Higher critics' of the last thirty years, the +men who broke Spurgeon's heart, the Issachars of the nineteenth and +early twentieth century, those 'knowing ones' who, like Issachar, +thought that they knew better than God." +</P> + +<P> +The two men walked on together in deep talk. Ralph learned that his +companion was Robert J. Baring, principal of the great shipping firm, +and of merchants and importers. +</P> + +<P> +Baring was an educated man, and of considerable culture, and Ralph and +he found that they had very much in common. But that which perhaps +constituted the closest tie between them was the fact that both had +lost their nearest and dearest, and were <I>left</I> to face the coming +horrors of the Anti-christ reign, and the hideousness of the great +Tribulation. +</P> + +<P> +"God grant," Ralph said once, as they talked, "that when the moment +comes, as come it will, that we are called upon to stand for God, or +die for Him, that we may witness a good confession." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +FORESHADOWINGS. +</H3> + + +<P> +A month had elapsed since the translation of the church. A new order +in everything had arisen—Religious, Governmental, Social. The spirit +of lawlessness grew fiercer and fouler each day, it is true, yet there +was a supreme authority, a governmental restriction, that prevented the +fouler, the more destructive passions of the baser kind of men and +women, having full scope. +</P> + +<P> +A curious kind of religion had been set up in many of the churches. +The services were sensuous to a degree, and were a strange mixture of +Romanism, Spiritism (demonology,) Theosophy, Materialism, and other +kindred cults. Almost every week some new ode or hymn was produced, +every sentiment of which was an applauding of man, for God was utterly +ignored, and the key-note of the Harvard college "class Poem," for the +year 1908, became the key-note of the Sunday Song of the "worshippers" +in the churches: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"<I>No</I> God for a gift God gave us—<BR> +MANKIND ALONE must save us."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It was a curious situation, since it was "man" worshipping himself. +Presently, the centre of worship would shift from man, to <I>The</I> Man of +Sin—the Anti-christ. +</P> + +<P> +These religious services were held, as a rule, from twelve-thirty to +one-fifteen on the Sunday once a day only, (without any week-night +meetings.) They were held at an hour when, in the old-days, the +congregations would have been home, or going home, from their services. +But this arranged lateness was due to the fact, that there had grown up +in all sections of society an ever-increasing lateness of retiring at +night, coupled with a growth of indolence caused by every kind of +sensual indulgence, not the least of which was gluttony. Music of a +sensuous, voluptuous character formed a chief part of the brief Sunday +services, and every item was loudly applauded as though the whole +affair had been a performance rather than a professedly religious +service. +</P> + +<P> +Most of the interior arrangements in many of the old places of worship +had been altered. The theatre style of thing—plush-covered tip seats, +etc.—had taken the place of the old pews and the wooden seats. In +many of these Sunday services, too, people of both sexes smoked at +will—for smoking among women had become almost universal. +</P> + +<P> +There were no Bibles, or Hymn books, the odes, etc., were printed on +double sheets, after the fashion of theatre programmes, and, like them, +contained numerous advertisements of the Sunday matinees and evening +performances at the theatres, music-halls, etc. +</P> + +<P> +All this had been brought about much more easily than would at first +appear, until we remember one or two factors that had long been working +silently, subtly among the attendants—mere church professors—of the +various places of worship, such as, the insistance on shorter services, +and fewer—for long, before the Rapture, the unspiritual had clamoured +for a <I>single</I> service of the week, that of a late Sunday morning one. +Then for years, religious services (those of the Sunday) had grown more +and more sensuous, unspiritual. Every real <I>spiritual</I> doctrine had +first been denied, then expunged from the <I>essay</I> that had largely +taken the place of the old-time sermon. Again, all spiritual +restraints had now been taken away—the true believers, the Holy +Spirit, every spiritually-minded, born-again pastor and clergyman. +</P> + +<P> +The new Religion (it could not be called a Faith) was a universal one. +The powers of the Priest-craft had invented a religion of the Flesh, +fleshy to a degree. Every type of indulgence was permissible, so that +men everywhere gloried in their religion, "having a form—but denying +God." +</P> + +<P> +The performances at all theatres, music-halls, etc., had grown rapidly +worse and worse, in character,—licentiousness, animalism, +voluptuousness, debauchery, these were the main features of the newer +type of performances. Salome dances, and even the wildest, obscenest +type of the "<I>can-can</I>" of the French, in its most promiscuous +lascivious forms, were common fare on the varied English stages. +</P> + +<P> +But if the stage was filthy and indecent, what could be said of the +books! There was not a foulness or obscenity and indecency that was +not openly, shamelessly treated in the bluntest of phraseology. +Thousands of penny, two-penny, and three-penny editions of utter +obscenity were issued daily. And the vitiated taste of the great mass +of the people grew voraciously by feeding upon them. +</P> + +<P> +Marriage was a thing of the dead past. There had been a growth of +foul, subtle, hideous teaching <I>before</I> the translation of the church. +Marriage had been taught (in many circles) to be "an unnecessary +restraint upon human liberty." "Women"—it had been written, <I>absolved +from shame</I>, shall be <I>owners</I> of themselves." "We believe" (the same +writer had written) "in the sacredness of the family and the home, the +legitimacy of <I>every</I> child, and the inalienable right of every woman +to the absolute possession of herself." +</P> + +<P> +All this foul seed-teaching of the days before the Translation of the +Church, burst into open blossom and fullest fruit when once the +restraint of Christian public opinion had been withdrawn from the earth. +</P> + +<P> +The friendship between Ralph Bastin and Baring had grown with the days, +and as they watched the rapid march of events, all heading towards +ultimate evil, they talked of the possible <I>finale</I>, while they +encouraged themselves in their God. +</P> + +<P> +One evening, when they met, Baring said: +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose there will soon come the time when no one will be able to +trade without bearing "the mark of the Beast." +</P> + +<P> +"Some new indication that way?" asked Ralph. +</P> + +<P> +"I think so," Baring returned. "You remember that I told you that +previous to the taking away of the Church, the vessels of my firm had +been <I>tentatively</I> chartered for the transport of the various parts of +the Temple to Jerusalem. To-day, the negotiations have been quashed by +those who had previously approached us." +</P> + +<P> +"For what reason?" asked Ralph. +</P> + +<P> +"They gave no reason," Baring went on, "but I have not the slightest +doubt, myself, that the real reason is this, that I have, of late, +continually spoken warningly against Anti-christ." +</P> + +<P> +"But how could that be known in circles purely Anti-christ?" Ralph's +tones were eager; his eyes, too, were filled with a puzzled expression. +</P> + +<P> +"You know," Baring returned, "what we were speaking of the other night, +that now that the devil and his angels had been cast down from the air, +they are (though invisible) yet actively engaged all about us on the +earth?" +</P> + +<P> +Ralph nodded assent. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe, I am sure they are everywhere present." Baring smiled a +little sadly, as he added, his eyes sweeping the room in a swift, +comprehensive way: "There may be, there probably is, one or more +present in this room, at this moment, their object espionage. They +have doubtless been present when I have spoken against Anti-christ, +and——" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but this shipping matter of which you spoke, Bob, is a <I>Jewish</I> +affair," interrupted Bastin, adding: +</P> + +<P> +"For I presume, since the cargoes would be composed of the Temple +parts, that it would be financed by Jewish capitalists, religionists, +or what not? How then would Anti-christ have anything to do with it?" +</P> + +<P> +Slowly, deliberately, almost solemnly Baring replied: +</P> + +<P> +"Lucien Apleon is a Jew!" +</P> + +<P> +Bastin started sharply. Some idea of what his friend meant flashed +upon him. +</P> + +<P> +"Lucien Apleon!" he cried hoarsely. "But what——" +</P> + +<P> +Baring broke in with: "I believe that Lucien Apleon will presently be +<I>revealed</I> as the Anti-christ, and——" +</P> + +<P> +The conversation had been going on in Ralph's Editorial office. It was +now interrupted by a startling call over the tape-wire, and Baring +suddenly realizing the hour, took a hurried temporary farewell of his +friend. +</P> + +<P> +An hour later Ralph was seated at his table penning the "Prophet's +chair" column for the next morning's issue of his paper. It was only +natural, under the new order of life and thought that prevailed, that a +daily paper, conducted on the lines of the "Courier," should drop +heavily in circulation. The "Courier" had so dropped, though it still +paid to issue it. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>My enemies</I>, the enemies of God and of righteousness," he murmured, +as he took up his "Fountain," (he preferred a pen to a type-writer) +"are, I am inclined to believe, the chief purchasers of the paper new, +and they only buy it to see what I say from the 'Prophet's Chair.'" +</P> + +<P> +For a moment, as was now his invariable custom, before beginning his +daily message, he bowed his head and prayed for wisdom to write God's +mind. +</P> + +<P> +When next he lifted his head, and put pen to paper, he wrote with great +rapidity, and without an instant's hesitation: +</P> + +<P> +"Resuming the subject of which we wrote yesterday, we tried to show +from Revelation XII, that the teaching was this, that, full of rage +because of his casting out from the heavens, Satan, the great Dragon, +the old Serpent, determined to destroy all lovers of God, that were yet +found among mortals. But even Satan himself is a spirit, and 'cannot +operate in the affairs of the world except through the minds, passions +and activities of men.' He needs to embody himself in earthly agents, +and to put himself forth in earthly organisms, in order to accomplish +his murderous will. +</P> + +<P> +"Through this wonderful Revelation of God to John, God makes known to +us what that organism is, and how the agency and the domination of the +enraged Dragon will be exerted in acting out his blasphemies, deceits, +and bloody spite. The subject is not a pleasant one, but it is an +important one. It also has features so startling and extraordinary +that many may think it but a wild and foolish dream. Nevertheless it +is imperative that we should all look at it, and understand it. God +has evidently set it out for us to learn and know just how things will +eventually turn out.[1] +</P> + +<P> +"John, 'in the Spirit,' finds himself stationed on the sands of the +sea—the same great sea upon which Daniel beheld the winds striving in +their fury. He beholds a monstrous Beast rising out of the troubled +elements. He sees horns emerging, and the number of them is ten, and +on each horn a diadem. He sees the heads which bear the horns, and +these heads are seven, and on the heads are names of blasphemy. +Presently the whole figure of the monster is before him. Its +appearance is like a leopard or panther, but its feet are the feet of a +bear, and its mouth as the mouth of a lion. He saw also that the Beast +had a throne, and power, and great authority. One of his heads showed +marks of having been fatally wounded and slain, but the death-stroke +was healed. +</P> + +<P> +"He saw also the whole earth wondering after the Beast, amazed at his +majesty and power, exclaiming at the impossibility of withstanding it, +and celebrating its superiority to everything. He beheld, and the +Beast was speaking great and blasphemous things against God, +blaspheming His name, His tabernacle, even them that [Transcriber's +note: line missing from book here] tabernacle in the Heaven the +translated saints), assailing and overcoming the saints on the earth, +and wielding authority over every tribe, and people, and tongue and +nation. He saw also that all the dwellers on earth, whose names are +not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain, did worship this +Beast. And for forty-two months the monster holds its place and enacts +its resistless will. +</P> + +<P> +"This is the picture! What are we to make of it? What does it mean? +How are we to understand it? It would seem to be a symbolic +presentation of the political sovereignty of <I>this world at the final +crisis</I>. +</P> + +<P> +"The Beast has horns, and horns represent power. On these horns are +diadems, and diadems are the emblems of regal dominion. The Beast is +said to possess power, a throne, and great authority. He makes war. +He exercises dominion over all tribes, and peoples, and tongues, and +nations. He is a monstrous Beast, including in his composition the +four beasts of Daniel. +</P> + +<P> +"From the interpreting angel we know that Daniel's four beasts denoted +'four kingdoms' that arose upon the earth. The identification thus +becomes complete and unmistakable, that this monstrous Beast is meant +to set before us an image of earthly sovereignty and dominion. And if +any further evidence of this is demanded, it may be abundantly found in +Rev. XVII. 9-17, where the same Beast is further described, and the ten +horns are interpreted to be 'ten kings.' +</P> + +<P> +"This Beast is therefore the embodiment of this world's political +sovereignty in its last phase, in the last years of its existence. +Daniel's beasts were successive empires, the Babylonian, the +Medo-Persian, the Graeco-Macedonian, and the Roman. But the lion, the +bear, the leopard, and the nameless ten-horned monster, each distinct +in Daniel, are all united in one in Revelation. +</P> + +<P> +"This Beast appears to be, undoubtedly, an <I>individual</I> administration, +<I>embodied in one particular man</I>. Though upheld by ten kings or +governments, they unite in making the Beast the one sole Arch Regent of +their time. +</P> + +<P> +"This he—the Beast, the Anti-christ—gets a grip of the nations, who +willingly submit to his rule, being under the spirit of delusion, +'believing <I>the</I> lie' of the Anti-christ. +</P> + +<P> +"Already, we see that this confederacy of nations is being called into +an almost sudden existence. The seers of our nation, before this +strange order of things that has arisen in our midst, since the taking +away of the church, were wont to say to certain political changes—'at +the back of all the known forces that have helped to bring so-and-so to +pass, there almost <I>seems</I> to have been some unseen, unknown +Master-mind at work.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Tis so now, and the startling events that are following each other so +rapidly, are the product of a master-mind, the 'Man of Sin,' +Anti-christ, the Beast who has been energized by Satan, the Old Dragon, +who though he has not <I>yet</I> avowed himself, may be expected to do so +any day or hour now. +</P> + +<P> +"It will hardly be news to any one who reads this column regularly, +that the building of the Temple which is to be reared in Jerusalem, by +the Jews, who have largely returned to the 'Promised land' in unbelief, +is being pushed on with the utmost celerity. The fact that, for some +years previous to the Translation of the Church, all its parts, made to +perfect scale, were prepared and fitted, enables the builders to erect +this wonderful structure with almost magical speed. +</P> + +<P> +"Simultaneous with this work, there has just appeared in Jerusalem, two +remarkable men, who would appear to be Enoch and Elijah of old. These +men are witnesses for God, and are testifying against Anti-christ. +</P> + +<P> +"We say that these men would <I>appear</I> to be Enoch and Elijah, and not +Moses and Elijah, as some, in the old days before the Rapture, had +supposed. The allusion to water turned to blood, in the eleventh +chapter of Revelation (which treats of God's two witnesses) very +probably led some writers to connect the <I>first</I> of the two witnesses +with Moses—since Moses turned water into blood. +</P> + +<P> +"The main point of identification, we think, in the case of these two +witnesses, however, lies in the fact that since it is appointed unto +men <I>once</I> to die, the two witnesses must needs be men who have never +passed through <I>mortal</I> death. <I>Moses did die</I>, hence it seems to us +that he was disqualified from being one of the two witnesses, both of +whom have presently to pass through mortal death in the streets of +Jerusalem. Now Enoch and Elijah did not pass through mortal death, +hence we believe the event will prove that these two witnesses are +Enoch and Elijah. +</P> + +<P> +"Each day that we pen this particular column we are conscious that it +may be the last we shall pen, hence our anxiety to warn all our readers +against the Anti-christ, and his lie—the strong delusion of 2 +Thessalonians II 12." +</P> + +<P> +For a few moments longer Ralph wrote on in this strain, then, just as +he had completed the last sentence, his special Tape-wire rang him up. +He summoned Charley to carry his <I>M.S.</I> sheets to the comp. room. With +a word to his Secretary, (who was divided from him by one thickness of +wall only, communication being by a 'phone,) he turned to his Tape. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +[1] The Apocalypse, by Joseph A. Seiss, D.D. p. p. 401. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CRUEL AS THE GRAVE! +</H3> + + +<P> +Lucien Apleon's eyes held the cold, cruel malignity of a snake. His +brows were cold, straight, unruffled. His smile held the polished +brutality of the most Mephistophelian Mephistopheles. +</P> + +<P> +Judith Apleon knelt at his feet, her beautiful face working painfully. +A smile as cruel as his mouth crept into his eyes as he noted her +grovelling, as he watched the anguish in her face. +</P> + +<P> +She shuddered as she saw that smile creep into his eyes. She had seen +it before—more than once. The first time had been among the glorious +mountains of her beautiful Hungarian home. An old peasant woman, with +the reputation of a witch, had scowled upon him, and had uttered a +curse on him. The spot where the three had met was in a lonely pass. +At the utterance of the curse he had cut the poor old hag down, with +one fierce slash of his heavy riding whip. She had howled for mercy, +and for reply he flogged the poor frail old prostrate form until life +had fled, then, with a lifting spurn of his foot, he had hurled the +body over the edge of that mountain pass, into the unknown depths of +the ravine beyond. And all the time his eyes had smiled, as they +smiled now—and Judith shuddered, for the smile was as cruel as the +grave, and was a reflection of Hell. +</P> + +<P> +She knew the diabolical cruelty which lay hidden behind that smile, and +remembering the fate of those upon whom he had bent that smile, she +sickened with a shuddering fear of her own life. +</P> + +<P> +They had quarreled, that is to say she had <I>tried</I> to thwart him in a +trifling thing. She hardly, herself, realized <I>what</I> he was, or the +power he possessed. +</P> + +<P> +"Lucien," and her voice shook with the agony which filled her, with the +fear that had her in its shuddering grip. "Lucien, don't look like +that at me." +</P> + +<P> +With an affrighted scream she cried: "Don't! Don't! Lucien! No one +on whom I ever saw you look, as you look now, ever lived an hour, +and——." +</P> + +<P> +His gaze of diabolical hate hypnotized her. She wanted to take her +eyes from his, but could not. +</P> + +<P> +He made her no audible reply. He only smiled on. A faint cry, like +the low scream of a terrified coney, escaped her. Her face paled until +it was like the grey-white of a corpse. +</P> + +<P> +"Spare me, Lucien, spare me——." +</P> + +<P> +She would have said more, but the chill of his hellish smile froze the +words upon her lips. +</P> + +<P> +He never once changed his attitude. His left elbow rested on the +corner of the mantel, the fingers of his right hand played with the +gold watch-guard he wore. +</P> + +<P> +A full minute elapsed, then with a cry of passionate, painful entreaty, +she lifted her beautiful clasped hands, and wringing them in agony, +cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Lucien—Lucien—." Then a sob choked her. +</P> + +<P> +For another long minute there was a tomb-like silence. He never moved +a muscle of his face. The chill of the smile in his eyes deepened, and +seemed, as it was bent upon her, to numb her faculties. +</P> + +<P> +Her whole frame seemed to wilt under the ice of his smile. She +shivered with the concentrated hate his eyes expressed. +</P> + +<P> +Lower and lower she crouched at his feet. And as he saw her wilt and +shiver the smile of Hell deepened in his cruel eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly he spoke. The words were uttered in dulcet tones. But their +meaning had, to her, the sentence of death, as softly, calmly, there +fell from his lips: +</P> + +<P> +"I have no further need of you! You are in my way!" +</P> + +<P> +For one instant her eyes remained fixed upon his face. Then slowly her +limbs relaxed, her body swayed lightly forward, and sank rather than +fell upon the thick pile of the carpet. +</P> + +<P> +With a low, mocking laugh Lucien Apleon turned away from the dead form. +But before he passed out of the room he did a curious thing. A Bible +rested on one of the shelves of the room, he took the volume from its +place, opened it at the 13th of Revelation and taking a pen, he dipped +it into the red ink, and ran a red line around the 15th verse of the +chapter. +</P> + +<P> +A moment later he had passed from the room. +</P> + +<P> +The verse he had red-scored, read: "He had power to give life unto the +<I>image</I> of the Beast, that the image of the Beast should both speak, +and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast +should be killed." +</P> + +<P> +No wonder that Lucien Apleon smiled. For if presently, he was going to +cause the <I>image</I> of the Beast to cause death to those who defied him, +how much more could he himself strike dead by the power of the Satanic +energy given to him. +</P> + +<P> +Judith Apleon's body was conveyed to the crematorium and consumed. A +doctor had certified heart-disease; there was no inquest. Lucien did +not attend the funeral. The whole affair was carried through by the +undertaker. There were no mourners. +</P> + +<P> +The Anti-christ spirit is marked by "Without natural affection," one +could not therefore expect Anti-christ himself to possess <I>any</I> +affection. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +"A REED LIKE A ROD." +</H3> + + +<P> +Events moved with startling rapidity. Events which, in the +swift-moving times of the last years of the nineteenth century, would +have occupied a decade to bring to pass, now occupied no more than the +same number of days. The revived Roman Empire was an established fact. +Moved by Satan, the ten kings had united to make Lucien Apleon their +Emperor. The nations, having cast off all belief in the orthodoxy of +the previous centuries, refusing to believe God's truth, utterly +scouting it, in fact, they had laid themselves open to receive +Anti-christ's lie, and had swallowed it wholesale. +</P> + +<P> +Babylon had been rebuilt, and had become the <I>Commercial</I> centre of the +reign of Lucien Apleon, even as Jerusalem was now to become his +religious centre. +</P> + +<P> +Ralph Bastin was still Editor of the "Courier," though each week, each +day, in fact, he wondered if it would be his last of office, even as he +often wondered if he might not have to seal his testimony as a +God-inspired editor, with his blood, his life. +</P> + +<P> +Already, all who, like himself, would live Godly, had to suffer bitter +persecution. Many of the Godly had been found mysteriously murdered, +and always the murders had been passed over by those who were in +authority. +</P> + +<P> +Ralph was on the point of leaving his office for luncheon, (he always +lunched in the city,) when a visitor was announced. +</P> + +<P> +"Rabbi Cohen, to see you, sir," announced Charley. +</P> + +<P> +"Show him in at once," replied Ralph, and rising to his feet he went to +the door to meet his friend. +</P> + +<P> +The Rabbi entered with a little eager run, and the two men grasped +hands heartily, their respective faces glowing with the gladness they +each felt. +</P> + +<P> +As it had been with Tom Hammond and that other Cohen, the Jew, who had +shared in the translation of the Church, so with the Rabbi who was now +visiting Ralph, he had been drawn to call upon Ralph, in the first +place, because of his editorial espousal of the Jewish people and their +interests. +</P> + +<P> +Between Ralph and the Rabbi, there had grown up a very strong +friendship, and though for some weeks, they had not met, each knew that +the other's friendship was as ever. +</P> + +<P> +After a few ordinary exchanges between the pair, the Rabbi, suddenly +looked up eagerly, saying: +</P> + +<P> +"I have come to say good-bye, to you, my friend, unless, by any +fortunate chance, I can persuade you to accompany me, or, at least, +follow me soon." +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye, Cohen?" cried Ralph, "Why—what—where are you going?" +</P> + +<P> +"To Jerusalem, Bastin!" There was a curious ring of mixed pride and +gladness in the manner of his saying "Jerusalem." +</P> + +<P> +"You know," he went on, "that we Cohens are the descendents of Aaron, +that we are of the priestly line. I am the head of our family, and my +people have chosen me as the <I>first</I> High priest for our new Temple +worship." +</P> + +<P> +Brimming with his subject, he spoke rapidly, enthusiastically: "The +Temple is to be formally opened on the tenth of September. The +tradition among my people, and handed down to us in many of our +writings is this, that the Great Temple of Solomon—opened in the +seventh month, as all our scriptures, yours as well as ours, say—was +dedicated and opened on a day corresponding with the modern tenth of +September. Our new Temple will be opened on the tenth of this month." +</P> + +<P> +On entering the room he had laid a long, cylinder-shaped japanned roll +upon the table. This he now took up, took off the lid, and drew out a +roll of vellum. Unrolling the vellum, he held the wide sheet out +between his two outstretched hands, saying: +</P> + +<P> +"I brought this on purpose for you to see, friend Bastin." +</P> + +<P> +He smiled pleasantly as he added: "I expect you are the only Gentile +who has seen this finished drawing." +</P> + +<P> +For a few moments both men were silent. Ralph was speechless from +amazement, the Rabbi from eager interest in watching his friend's amaze. +</P> + +<P> +The "drawing," as the Rabbi had called it, was in reality a superb +painting of the most marvelous structure possible to conceive. The +bulk of the vellum surface was occupied with an enormous oblong +enclosure. The outer sides of the enclosure showing a most exquisite +marble terracing, the capping of the marble wall was of a wondrous +red-and-orange-veined dark green stone. The bronze gates were capped +and adorned with massive inlayings of gold and silver, while the floral +parts showed the colours of the precious stones used to produce each +separate coloured flower. +</P> + +<P> +A huge altar, the ascent to which, on three of the sides was by flights +of wide steps, occupied the fore-part of the courtyard inside the gates +of the main entrance—there were five entrances, each with its own +gates. Two entrances on each side of the oblong enclosure, and one at +the courtyard end. +</P> + +<P> +Beyond the altar was a huge brazen sea, resting upon the hind-quarters +of twelve bronze oxen. Beyond the brazen sea was the temple itself, +entered by a wide porch of wondrous marble, the pillars of which were +crowned with golden capitals of marvellous workmanship. The porch was +surmounted by a dome. Then came the temple proper, its form a square +above a square, the upper square surmounted by a huge dome, supported +upon columns similar to those found in the porch, and in the +base-square. +</P> + +<P> +What the actual building must be like Ralph could not conceive! The +picture of it was a bewildering vision of almost inconceivable +loveliness. +</P> + +<P> +Now and again he asked a question, the Rabbi, at his side, delighted +with his admiration, answering everything fully. +</P> + +<P> +"What has your wonderful temple cost?" Ralph presently asked, as the +picture was being rolled up, and replaced in the japanned cylinder. +</P> + +<P> +"Twenty million pounds, a full third of which has been spent upon +precious stones for studding the walls, and gates, and pillars!" +</P> + +<P> +Ralph gasped in amaze. "Twenty—million—pounds!" He repeated the +words much after the manner of a man who, recovering from a swoon, +says, "Where—am—I?" +</P> + +<P> +They talked together for a few moments of the <I>how</I> of the financing of +such a costly undertaking. Then suddenly, Bastin faced his friend, a +rare wistfulness in his face and in his voice, as he said: +</P> + +<P> +"I wish, dear Cohen, you, and your dear people could see how futile all +this work is! I do not want to hurt you by speaking of Jesus of +Nazareth. But suffer me to say this, that probably the only references +which God's word makes to this Temple of yours, are in Daniel xii. 11 +and in the Christian New Testament, Matthew xxiv. Mark xiii 2, 2 +Thessalonians ii 14, and Revelation xi 1, <I>and there it is mentioned in +connection with Judgment</I>. In the first verse of <I>our</I> eleventh of +Revelation, the temple is to be measured, but it is with a reed <I>like a +rod</I>. Not the ordinary measuring reed, but like a <I>rod</I>, the symbol of +Judgment. +</P> + +<P> +"And that, dear Cohen, will be the end of your beautiful temple—it +will be destroyed in Judgment, and soon—all too soon—it will be +cursed and defiled by the abomination of desolation of which your +beloved prophet Daniel speaks, in the twelfth chapter and the eleventh +verse." +</P> + +<P> +With a sudden new eagerness, but as sad as he was eager, he said: "In +your extremity, and in your desire to be established in the land of +your fathers, you talk of making a seven years covenant with Lucien +Apleon, Emperor of the European confederacy?" +</P> + +<P> +Cohen, evidently impressed by Ralph's manner, nodded an assent, but did +not speak. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Cohen, my friend, my friend!" Ralph went on. "Would to God you +and your people had your eyes open to the true character of that man, +Lucien Apleon! If you had, you would see from your own prophets that +he was prophesied to be your foe. Remember Daniel nine, twenty-seven +(according to the modern chaptering and verses) "He shall confirm the +covenant with many for <I>one week</I>: (a week of years, of seven years) +and in the midst of the week (at the end of the first three and a half +years) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and on +the battlements shall be the idols of the desolator." +</P> + +<P> +Cohen's face was a picture of wondering amaze. Twice his lips parted +as though he would speak, but no sound came from them, and Ralph went +on: +</P> + +<P> +"I could weep with very anguish of soul, dear friend, at all that you, +and every truly pious Jew will suffer; when, at the end of the three +years and a half ('the midst of the week') the foul fiend whom you are +all trusting so implicitly, will suddenly abolish your daily sacrifice +of the morning and evening lamb, and will set up an image of himself, +which you, and all the <I>Godly</I> of your race, will refuse to worship. +Then will begin your awful tribulation, 'the time of Jacob's deadly +sorrow.' +</P> + +<P> +"It is in your own Scriptures, dear friend, if you would but see it. +And in <I>our</I> New Testament, in Matthew twenty-four, which is <I>all +Jewish</I> in its teaching, our Lord and Saviour, foretold all this as to +come upon your people. He even showed them to be in their own land, +saying, 'let them which are in Judea flee into the mountains … and +pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath day:' (for you Godly Jews +would not go beyond Moses' 'Sabbath day's journey,' and Anti-christ's +myrmidons would then soon overtake you.)" +</P> + +<P> +As if to jerk the talk into a new channel, Cohen said, almost abruptly: +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you say, my friend, that <I>our</I> temple, the temple which we +shall dedicate on the tenth of this month, has probably so few mentions +in the Scriptures, and those in judgment. When we say that the whole +of the nine last chapters of our prophet Ezekiel are taken up with it. +Nearly all our plans have followed the directions, the picture of +Ezekiel's Temple?" +</P> + +<P> +"That temple, sketched in Ezekiel," replied Ralph, "is the millennial +temple. There was no temple in the nineteen hundred odd years between +the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, and the translation of +'The church,' a few months ago. There could be no temple as regards +God's people—The Church—because all that nineteen hundred years was a +<I>spiritual</I> dispensation. God's Temple then was composed of living +stones, wherein a <I>spiritual</I> priesthood offered up spiritual +sacrifices. +</P> + +<P> +"But to go back to the temple described by Ezekiel in the last nine +chapters of his prophecy—this is the temple which will be reared in +the Millennium, but it will <I>not be</I> in Jerusalem. Read carefully over +all that Ezekiel's description, and you will see that when your +Messiah, our Christ, comes to reign for that wonderful time of a +thousand years of perfect righteousness, that your land—the land given +in promise by God to your father Abraham—is to be <I>re</I>-divided +(Ezekiel forty-five one to five). Ezekiel's Temple, and the division +of the land, stand and fall together, and it is a subject that cannot +be symbolized. +</P> + +<P> +"Now when the land is divided into straight lines, 'a holy oblation' is +commanded of sixty square miles—if the measurement be by <I>reeds</I>, or +fifteen square miles if the measurement be by <I>cubits</I>. This oblation +land will be divided into three parts. The northern portion will be +for the priests, and the new temple will be in the midst. The second +division of land, going South will be for the Levites. And the third, +the most Southerly portion, will contain Jerusalem. So that that +temple of the Millenium—Ezekiel's temple—will be fully thirty miles +from Jerusalem. +</P> + +<P> +"Solomon's temple, and the one your people have just reared are both +situated on Mount Moriah, but Ezekiel's temple will not be on Mount +Moriah, for according to Isaiah two, two, 'It shall come to pass in the +last days, that the mountain of Jehovah's House shall be established in +the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all +nations shall flow unto it.' +</P> + +<P> +"Read carefully, dear Cohen, your own loved Scriptures (in this +connection, especially Isaiah 50) and you will see that Gentiles shall +help, financially, as well as by manual labor to build the place, which +shall make the place of Jehovah's feet glorious—that must be His +<I>Temple</I>, and <I>not the city</I>. Though Gentiles will also help to build +the walls of your new city of Jerusalem in <I>that</I> day." +</P> + +<P> +For fully another half hour the subject was pursued. Cohen was amazed, +puzzled, but because his mind was not an open one to receive the +Truth—nothing blinds and obstructs like a preconceived idea—he failed +to grasp the Scriptural facts as presented by Ralph. +</P> + +<P> +The moment came for the farewell word between them. "I may never see +you again on earth, dear friend," Ralph remarked. "For, believe me, +the day is near at hand when all of us who will cleave to <I>our</I> God, +<I>your</I> God—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, will have to seal our +testimony with our blood. +</P> + +<P> +"In three years and a half you, dear Cohen, and all the Godly ones of +your race, will be at issue with Lucien Apleon, for according to your +own prophet, Daniel (apart from our <I>New</I> Testament Scriptures) he, the +Anti-christ, will autocratically put a stop to your sacrifices in your +Temple, and will set up his own image to be worshipped, and if you will +not worship that image, or if you do not succeed in fleeing to a place +of safety, your lives will be forfeited. May God bless you dear, dear +friend, and lead you into the Truth of His own plain statements of the +facts you have to face." +</P> + +<P> +Cohen was quiet, subdued, almost sad. Then, as if to bridge an awkward +moment, he said, with a forced eagerness: +</P> + +<P> +"Why not come to the opening of the Temple yourself, instead of sending +a representative to report to your paper?" +</P> + +<P> +Ralph shook his head; "I could not get away, dear friend." +</P> + +<P> +He did not voice the actual thing which weighed with him, that any day +now he might cease to be Editor of the "Courier." +</P> + +<P> +The two men shook hands, and parted as men part who never expect to +meet again. +</P> + +<P> +Bastin left alone dropped into a "brown study." He was suddenly +recalled to the present, by the arrival of the mail. The most +important packet bore the handwriting of Sir Archibald Carlyon, Ralph's +proprietor. +</P> + +<P> +He smiled as he broke the envelope, recalling the thought of his heart +only twenty minutes ago, and wondering whether his foreboding was now +to be verified. +</P> + +<P> +The letter was as kindly in its tone as Sir Archibald's letters ever +were. But it was none the less emphatic. After kindliest greetings, +and a few personal items, it went on: +</P> + +<P> +"All the strange happenings of the past months have strangely unnerved +me. I cannot understand things, 'I dunno where I are,' as that curious +catch-saying of the nineteenth century put it. I live like a man in a +troubled dream, a night-mare. Several members of our church have been +taken, and I, who prided myself on my strict churchmanship, have been +left behind. My boon companion, the rector of our parish, a man who +always seemed to me to be the beau ideal clergyman, he too is left, and +is as puzzled and angry as I am. I think he is more angry and +mortified than I am, because his pride is hurt at every point, since, +as the Spiritual head (nominally at least) of this parish, he has not +only been passed over by this wonderful translation of spiritual +persons, but being left behind he has no excuse to offer for it. +</P> + +<P> +"The curate of our church and his wife, whom we always spoke of as +being 'a bit <I>peculiar</I>,' they disappeared when the others did. By the +bye, Bastin, good fellow, what constitutes '<I>peculiarity</I>,' in this +sense? It seems to me now, that to be out and out for God—as that +good fellow and his wife were, as well as one or two others in our +parish—is the real peculiarity of such people. God help us, what +fools we have been! +</P> + +<P> +"Our village shopkeeper, a dissenter, and a much-vaunted <I>local</I> +preacher, is also left behind, but his wife was taken. A farmer, a +member of our own church, who used to invite preachers down from the +Evangelization Society, London, is gone, but his wife, a strict +churchwoman like myself—but a rare shrew—is left. +</P> + +<P> +"But to come to the chief object of my letter, I am afraid you will be +sorry—though perhaps not altogether unprepared for what I have to +say—'<I>I have sold the 'Courier.</I>' It may be the only daily paper, (as +you wrote me the other day) that 'witnesses for righteousness,' but my +mind is too harrassed by all this mysterious business of the +<I>Translation</I> of men and women, to think of anything else but the +future, and what it will bring. I have sold the paper to Lucien Apleon +(through one of his agents, of course, since now that he is made +Emperor of this strangely constituted confederation of kings and +countries) he cannot be expected to personally transact so small a +piece of business as the purchase of a daily paper." +</P> + +<P> +Ralph lowered the letter-sheet, a moment, and a weary little smile +crept into his face. +</P> + +<P> +"I might have guessed that Apleon would have done this," he mused, "if +he is, as I believe, the Anti-christ!" +</P> + +<P> +He lifted the letter again, and read on: +</P> + +<P> +"He wanted to take possession at once, and give me 5,000 pounds extra +as a retiring fee for you. But I was obstinate on this point, and told +his agent that he could not have possession until a month from today. +</P> + +<P> +"Between this and then I shall hope to see you, dear Bastin. I want to +see you very much on my own account. Your utterances from 'The +Prophet's chair,' have aroused strange new thoughts and desires within +me, and I want you to help me to a clearer view of the events of the +near future. Then, as to the sundering of our business relations, you +know me so well that you know I shall treat you handsomely when you +retire from the Editorship. +</P> + +<P> +"Talking of finance, what special use can money be to a man like me +now, if all that you have lately written in the 'Courier'—as to <I>the +future</I>—be true?" +</P> + +<P> +The letter wound up most cordially. Then there followed a "P. S." +</P> + +<P> +"My old friend, the Rector of the parish, who has always been keen on +theatricals—he would have made a better actor than parson—is having +the church seated with plush-covered tip-seats like a theatre, and +proposes to have a performance every Sunday Evening, and as often in +the week as funds, and interest in the affair, will warrant. Good +Heavens! What has the world come to? Then only to think that +England's King, is under the supreme rule of a Jew, whose antecedents +no one appears to know—that is to say, previous to his meteoric-like +appearance when he was twenty-five. 'How are the mighty fallen!" +</P> + +<P> +"How, indeed!" murmured Ralph, with a sigh, as he let the letter fall +on his table. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment or two he stared straight in front of him, then, half +aloud, he murmured: +</P> + +<P> +"A month only! God help me to make good use of the thirty days! If I +can but wake up some of the people of this land to the real position of +affairs, I shall be only too thankful." +</P> + +<P> +For a few moment's longer he sat on, deep in thought. Then suddenly he +started sharply, grew alert in every sense, and sounded a summons for +his messenger boy. When the lad appeared, he asked: +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know if Mr. Bullen is on the premises?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yus, sur, he is!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ask him to step this way, at once, please!" +</P> + +<P> +George Bullen, was a keen, up-to-date young journalist, a man of +thirty-two only, but with a fine record as regarded his profession. A +close personal friendship existed between his chief and himself, for he +had been wholly won to God through Ralph's efforts. +</P> + +<P> +In a few words Ralph explained to the younger man, the changes that +were near at hand. Then continuing: +</P> + +<P> +"But while you and I, George, represent 'The Courier,' we will make it +all the power for God and for humanity that lies in our power. Though +I am not sure that we can do much with <I>humanity</I>, now. The strong +delusion has got such an almost universal grip upon the race, that they +will gladly, eagerly swallow all the lie of the Arch-liar, the +Anti-christ. In the old days, before the translation of the church, +the Bible spoke of 'the whole world lieth in the arms of the Wicked +One,' and that is truer than ever now. Well, George, <I>we</I> must do all +<I>we</I> can. +</P> + +<P> +"But now to the chief thing for which I sent for you. The new temple +at Jerusalem is to be opened on the tenth. I want you to go, to +represent the 'Courier.' What I am especially anxious for you to do, +is to note everything that will show the true <I>inwardness</I> of things, +so that the little time left to us, on the dear old paper, shall be a +time of holy witness for God. +</P> + +<P> +"Your knowledge of the East, your acquaintance with Yiddish, and Syrian +and Hebrew, the very swarthiness of your skin, and blackness of your +hair, dear boy, may all serve you in good stead. For, if you feel led +to it, I should suggest that you adopt that Syrian costume I once saw +you in. This course would have many advantages, for while you could +the more readily mix with the people, and obtain <I>entree</I> often where +you otherwise could not, your identity as representative of 'The +Courier,' would not be made known. +</P> + +<P> +"I am not sure, George, but that if you presented yourself as our +representative, that all kinds of obstacles might not be put in the way +of your obtaining information, or, more likely, in transmitting it. +You might even be quietly put out of the way. Spare no expense, dear +boy, where other men spend five pounds, spend a hundred, if it will +serve us better." +</P> + +<P> +For a time the two men held deep consultation. Then when they gripped +hands in parting, each commended the other to God. +</P> + +<P> +George Bullen started for the East next afternoon. His stock of +Eastern garments was full and varied, and not one Eastern in a million +would have known him from a Syrian native. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +"THE MARK OF THE BEAST." +</H3> + + +<P> +George Bullen was no stranger to Jerusalem, yet it was a strange +Jerusalem that met his sight as he entered it by the Jaffa gate. For +interest, picturesqueness, even amusement, there is no time so rich as +at early morning, at the Jaffa gate. +</P> + +<P> +Bullen had been perfectly familiar, in the old days (eight years ago) +with the scene, but there were differences this morning. The long +strings of donkeys and camels, laden to within the proverbial "last +straw" and led by foul-smelling, unkempt Bedouins were there, as usual, +in spite of the fact that railways now ran in every direction. Eastern +women, robed in their loose blue cotton wrapper garments—sleeping, as +well as day attire—were there in galore, only now all of them walked +unveiled, whereas, in the old days, most of them were veiled. +</P> + +<P> +Pilgrims from every land were pouring into the city. The cafes were +crowded. The aroma of strong black coffee was often <I>fortunately</I>, +stronger than the less pleasant odours of the insanitary streets. +</P> + +<P> +Early as it was, the money changers were doing a stirring trade. +Water-carriers moved about with their monotonous cry of "<I>moyeh</I>," +supplemented, in some cases, by the same word in English—"<I>Water</I>." +</P> + +<P> +Market garden produce, the finest in the world, and now proving how +literally Palestine, under the fertilizing power of the "<I>latter</I> +rain," had become "a fruitful garden," was piled everywhere about at +the sides of the streets. Cauliflowers thirty-six inches around, with +every other vegetable equally fine, melons, lemons, oranges, grapes, +tomatoes, asparagus, onions, leeks, lettuce, water-cress, even garlic, +all were here, with turbaned dealers sitting cross-legged among the +produce. +</P> + +<P> +Early as it was, crowds of American, English, and Continental tourists +were abroad, their gleaming white drill attire and tobies and helmets, +conspicuous among the grander colour of the natives. +</P> + +<P> +But George Bullen had seen all this many times before, his eyes now +took but little note of the streets and their contents, except that he +noted the fact under the new order of things, since the Jews had come +into possession of the city, that there was scarce a Moslem of any kind +to be seen, and that most of the tumble-down, smaller houses, of a few +years back, had been pulled down, and that the streets in consequence +had been considerably widened. Hundreds of new houses of bungalow +type, had taken the places of those pulled down. Most of these were +built on the "Frazzi" system, or else after the fashion known as +reinforced concrete. +</P> + +<P> +All these changes were note-worthy, and full of meaning, but George +Bullen's eyes and attention were almost wholly absorbed by the Temple +that crowned Mount Moriah. He had not, of course, seen that wonderful +painting on Vellum which Rabbi Cohen had shown Ralph Bastin. It is +true he had seen photographs and sketches reproduced in the English +illustrated papers. But none of these had prepared him for the actual. +</P> + +<P> +Robed in his Syrian garb, and looking for all the world like the "real +article," he passed through the cosmopolitan crowd always making his +way upwards to where the marble and gold of the wonderful Temple reared +itself. +</P> + +<P> +Arrived outside the great main gates, he stood awed at the wonder and +magnificence of all that he saw. The whole structure was complete. +Not a pole or plank of scaffolding was left standing, no litter or +rubbish heaps were to be seen; every approach, every yard of the +enclosure was beautifully swept. A few officials, in a remarkable +uniform moved here and there about the great enclosure. +</P> + +<P> +For two hours George Bullen moved slowly round the Temple, making long +pauses at intervals, and taking in every item of the wondrous +architecture and still more wondrous ornamentation. When he finally +left the Mount, and took his way down the wide, steep decline—the +whole of this wide road was composed of marble blocks, reminding him of +the Roman Appian way—his mind was in a whirl, his head ached with the +glare of the sun on the gold, and with the deep concentration of his +sight upon so much colour and glitter. Again and again he paused, and +looked upwards and backwards, he had a difficulty in tearing himself +away. But he had much to do, and could not afford to linger. +</P> + +<BR> +<HR WIDTH="60%" ALIGN="center"> +<BR> + +<P> +It was the day before the official opening of the Temple. Jerusalem +was thronged—inside and outside, for Jerusalem, (according to +Zechariah ii. 4) was "inhabited as a town <I>without walls</I>." The +environs, and the suburbs had spread in every direction. For the first +time in the history of the world, the hills, Gareb and Goath, <I>outside</I> +Jerusalem, had, a few years before this, been covered with villas, +bungalows, hotels, etc., absolutely fulfilling Jeremiah xxxi. 38-40. +</P> + +<P> +Lucien Apleon's Palace, which had been built concurrently with the +Temple, and which, in its way, was almost as gorgeous a building, was +filled with the ten Kings of the Confederacy, and their suites. +</P> + +<P> +Soldiers of every one of the ten nationalities—though all wearing one +uniform, save that the "facings" were different to denote the land to +which they belonged—were everywhere to be seen. +</P> + +<P> +Itinerant venders moved about among the throngs bawling their chief +ware—"Programs for the Temple, to-morrow." George Bullen bought one +of the Programs. +</P> + +<P> +It was an amazing production, and as blasphemous as it was amazing. It +was most sumptuously got up, printed in a style unknown to the days of +even the end of the first decade of the 20th century. +</P> + +<P> +But before he began to read the order of the events, or even to note +the marks of sumptuousness of the appearance of the program, his +attention was arrested by a bold, curious hieroglyphic which headed the +program. This figuring was in richest purple and gold, and bore this +form: +</P> + +<A NAME="img-096"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-096.jpg" ALT="Mark of the Beast" BORDER="2" WIDTH="266" HEIGHT="121"> +<H3> +[Illustration: Mark of the Beast] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +For a long time he puzzled over the sign. Then, suddenly a memory +returned to him. One night when Ralph Bastin had been speaking to him +about the Anti-Christ he had said: +</P> + +<P> +"Here is a curious thing, George! I have just read in the Revelation, +thirteen, eighteen, that The Number of the Beast—the Anti-christ—is +THE Number of MAN; and his number is 666." Now this number, <I>in the +Greek</I>, is made up of two characters which stand for the name of +Christ, with a third character, the figure of a crooked serpent put +between them—the name of God's Christ, the Messiah, turned into a +devil sacrament (i. e. oath of fidelity.) +</P> + +<P> +"Ralph would have shown me the sign, I know," Bullen mused, "but that +at the very moment we were talking together, there came that scare of +fire in the stereo room, and we both rushed away. But now I know that +this sign on the program is the 'Mark of the Beast,' and that it +<I>signifies the oath of Fidelity to Anti-christ</I>." +</P> + +<P> +He caught his breath sharply, as he murmured: +</P> + +<P> +"So it has begun! He has begun to show his hand!" +</P> + +<P> +Then he let his eyes take in the contents of the program. +</P> + +<P> +Beneath the Hieroglyphic was the greeting: +</P> + +<CENTER> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"TO ALL THE WORLD!<BR> +APLEON, EMPEROR,<BR> +by the election of<BR> +MAN.<BR> +<BR> +Commands the following events in connection<BR> +with the Dedication and<BR> +opening of the Temple at Jerusalem.<BR> +<BR> +4-30 p. m. 9th Sept., year 1 of Apleon.<BR> +(Subject to minor alterations.)<BR> +<BR> +Appointment of the High Priest elect,<BR> +by the Emperor.<BR> +Address by The High Priest.<BR> +Confirmation of the 7 years Covenant<BR> +between the Hebrew Nation and the Emperor.<BR> +Affirmatory Signatures and Seals affixed.<BR> +Sign of the Sacrament<BR> +to be distributed and donned by all present.<BR> +</P> + +</CENTER> + +<P> +6-30 p. m. Bureaus will be opened all over the city, and in the +immediate neighbourhood of the Temple for the free distribution of the +sacramental signs, with directions for wearing the same. The donning +of the sign will be, of course, entirely voluntary. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"For how long," murmured Bullen to himself, "will this be voluntary?" +</P> + +<P> +He continued his reading: +</P> + +<P> +"At 7-30 a. m. 10th Sept. The Dedication of the Temple. The +procession of Kings, headed by Apleon, Emperor of the World, will start +from the Apleon Palace at 7-0 a. m. Imperial troops will line the way. +</P> + +<P> +"Fanfare of trumpets will greet the procession on its arrival at the +Temple Gates. +</P> + +<P> +"Opening ode will be sung by 1,000, singers massed in the courtyard. +</P> + +<P> +"Ceremony inside will commence by the investiture of the High Priest +with his glorious robes of office, the investiture will be performed by +the Emperor. +</P> + +<P> +"The 7 years Covenant to be read aloud by the High Priest. +</P> + +<P> +"Ode of Adoration of the Emperor to be sung by the Priests, choristers, +and others. +</P> + +<P> +"The ceremony is to be held at the above early hour, that there may be +no undue exposure to the heat of the later fore-noon." +</P> + +<P> +In pursuance with the liberty of these more enlightened days, all +persons may worship with covered or uncovered heads, as may seem fit to +each person. This applies to Jews and Jewesses also, and, (N. B.) +there will be no division of sex for the Jew and Jewess, they will +worship together. The days of the <I>grille</I> are past. +</P> + +<CENTER> + +<P> +"LONG LIVE THE EMPEROR!" +</P> + +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Of all the extraordinary productions—!" murmured George Bullen. He +did not finish his sentence, he would have been puzzled to have found +terms to have expressed all that he felt. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder if these programs can be procured in London?" he went on. +</P> + +<P> +A seller passed him at that moment, and he bought a second program, to +send to Ralph Bastin. +</P> + +<P> +They had made an arrangement, before parting, that everything—letters, +wireless, and all other messages—should be sent in code, and to an +address, and under a name that should not be recognized as having any +connection with the 'Courier'—"if," Ralph had added quietly, "there +are no demons present here who can divulge our talk." +</P> + +<P> +This was always one of the difficulties that the godly, at that time, +had to contend with, the ignorance of how far <I>invisible</I> demons could +spy upon, and report their sayings and doings. +</P> + +<P> +Hour by hour, the streets grew denser, for each hour brought new +arrivals, and always some of the <I>elite</I> of the earth. To George +Bullen, with the journalist instinct, there was "copy" everywhere, and +he was not slow to take full notes. +</P> + +<P> +Things were quieter from one to four, for the heat, in the open, was +almost unbearable. At four o'clock, Bullen was close by the chief gate +of the Temple. He would watch the arrival of the chief actors in the +first part of the great ceremonies. +</P> + +<P> +Through the mighty hosts of acclaiming peoples which lined that wide +marble upward road, King after King rode, all on white horses. +Merchant princes from Babylon; Royal princes from many lands. +</P> + +<P> +The last of the Kings to arrive was the King of Syria. At the gate, +close to where George Bullen was standing, the horse of the Syrian +monarch grew restive. +</P> + +<P> +Quick to seize an opportunity of getting into the Temple to see the +ceremony, George caught the rein of the horse, and with a soothing word +and touch, led the beast through the gate, flinging back a word in +Syrian to the King in the saddle. +</P> + +<P> +Hearing his own tongue, and noting the garb of his horse's leader, the +King flung a word of thanks to George, who led the horse right up to +the door of the sanctuary. +</P> + +<P> +Each monarch kept his saddle. Five were drawn up on one side, and five +on the other. They waited for Apleon. A moment or two only, then amid +a thunder of acclaim of "Long live the World's Emperor!" Lucien Apleon, +the Anti-christ, the Man of Sin, riding a jet black horse, cantered +through the gate. +</P> + +<P> +He was a marvellous figure of a man. In stature he was nearer seven +feet than six. His form as erect as a Venetian mast. His costume was +strange, but very striking, and gave him a regality of appearance. +</P> + +<P> +It was partly Oriental, partly occidental, and consisted of a +curious-toned darkish green military tunic, heavily-frogged with gold, +and with a wide, gold-braid collar. The buttons of the tunic were +separate emeralds set in circles of diamonds, and enclosed in a wide +circlet of gold. He wore white knee-breeches, and high Hessian boots, +adorned at the heels with gold spurs. Over his shoulders, clasped at +the neck with a large gold-and-precious-stone buckle of the same +mysterious form as the hieroglyphic crest at the head of the Programs, +he wore a wonderful burnouse of white and gold fleece, the gold +predominating over the white, and flashing fiercely, gorgeously in the +sun. His leonine head was surmounted with a dazzling covering that was +neither a crown, a mitre, nor a turban, but partook of the nature of +all three. It was profusely bedecked with the most costly of precious +stones. The largest diamond ever seen, shaped as an eight-pointed +star, and measuring nearly six inches from point to point, was set in +the front-centre of the mitre-turban-crown. With the sun shining upon +it, it was impossible to gaze upon the diamond. +</P> + +<P> +Riding up to the door of the porch of the Temple, his horse's +fore-hoofs resting on the upper of the four steps, he paused only to +return the salutes of the ten kings, then flung himself from the +saddle, and waited a moment until his horse was led away. Then turning +outwards towards the way by which he had come, he surveyed the scene +below him. +</P> + +<P> +Never in the history of the world had anything more Wonderful been +seen. Several million people were gathered—streets were blocked; +walls of the city, roofs of the houses and palaces and public buildings +were packed. Every window that faced the mount was crowded. Flags +flew everywhere within the city, and beyond the walls, where hundreds +of thousands of acclaiming people were gathered, every eye was directed +towards that Temple entrance where Anti-christ, the World's Emperor +stood. +</P> + +<P> +As he turned to face the millions of acclaiming people, a gun was fired +from the grounds of his palace, and at the same instant, a ball of +white, which had hung at the head of the flag-staff on the roof of his +palace, suddenly broke, and there swept out upon the light breeze, an +enormous white silk flag, the centre of which bore the mystic +inscription that had already appeared on the official programs, and +which he wore in gold jewels for a buckle of his bernouse. +</P> + +<P> +The eyes of Apleon flashed with a curious pride as he saw the great +white flag break in the air, while a smile, diabolical as Hell itself, +curled his lips. It seemed almost as though it was to see that +damnable challenge flung forth to the wind, that he had turned, more +than to acknowledge the acclaim of the gathered millions of the +deceived, lie-deluded people. +</P> + +<P> +A moment later, he turned into the Temple. The ten kings, Babylonian +merchant-princes, and others of note following. +</P> + +<P> +George Bullen, walking directly behind the King of Syria, passed in +with the others. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE INVESTITURE. +</H3> + + +<P> +A great hush fell upon those who gathered within that Temple. It was +not an awe from the sense of the divine—for God was not there in His +glory and power, since Anti-christ's spirit filled the place. It was +not the awe of silence and subjection to the world's greatest +ruler—though, presently, something of that would come upon those +gathered when they had eyes, ears, and mind for Apleon the Emperor. +Neither was the silence one of curiosity in the character of the +service in which they had been called to take part. The hush upon the +assembly was one of wonder and amaze at the splendour of the Temple's +interior in which they found themselves. +</P> + +<P> +Gold—there was no silver—, precious stones, sandalwood, marbles such +as had never been seen by any eye before, all fashioned into a wondrous +style of architecture peculiarly unique, yet withal holding a perfect +harmony—such is (not a description, for a description, in detail would +baffle the clearest mind and cleverest pen)—a bold mention of a few of +the chief materials. +</P> + +<P> +The artist—architect—he must have been as much an artist as an +architect to have designed the style—had taken <I>some</I> ideas from the +description, in Ezekiel, of the Millennial Temple. There was the palm, +the cherub with two faces, (the young lion and the man) "so that the +face of a young lion was on the one side toward the palm, and the face +of a man on the other side toward the palm." The vine and the +pomegranite were there. In spite of the most profuse detail all was +rendered with a perfection of minuteness, while throughout the whole of +the interior the harmony of colour was beyond praise—and beyond +description. +</P> + +<P> +For the technical skill exhibited in each separate item of colour, +carving, and "cunning" workmanship, had, with truest artistic sense, +been subordinated to that wondrous balance of the whole appearance that +went to make up the amazing harmony that was as a veritable atmosphere +in the place. To combine in a chromatic scheme so much brilliance and +colour without even a suspicion of gaudiness, or the <I>bizarre</I>, was a +triumph of art. +</P> + +<P> +The light in the place was a true adjunct to the effects produced by +the wondrous composition of the blended glory and colour. There was no +window anywhere, but "Radiance," the newest light of the day, tempered +by rose-pink and palest electric blue prisms, filled the place with a +wondrous radiance, while at the same time the eye could not detect the +various spots where the separate lights were located. +</P> + +<P> +The company gathered was in harmony with the place, since the many +otherwise gaudy tints of costume and uniform were softened, blended, +and harmonized by the power of colour-tone of the prisms through which +the otherwise fierce, flashing "Radiance" was shed. +</P> + +<P> +The <I>outer temple</I> interior—the place where the brilliant throng was +gathered—would hold a thousand persons comfortably. (There was no +seat in Solomon's temple, as there was no seat in the Tabernacle, which +was a symbol of the ever unfinished work of the earthly priesthood.) +And there was no seat here, save a throne-chair of gold, ivory, +mother-of-pearl, and precious stones, that occupied the centre of a +magnificent dais just in front of the entrance into the very small +"Holy of Holies." A wonderful curtain of purple velvet—not the fine +twined linen as of old—screened off this narrow strip of the interior, +from the larger outer section. The curtain was worked with marvellous +needlework in gold and pearls of almost priceless value, the pattern +being a wonderful blending of cherubim, palm, and pomegranate. +</P> + +<P> +On entering the building The Emperor Apleon, seated himself on the +Throne, when each person present made a deep bow of obeisance. One man +only remained upright—George Bullen. Taking advantage of his position +behind a marble pillar, he held himself erect. Had he been detected, +he would have rapturously sacrificed his life rather than have bent to +the Anti-christ. +</P> + +<P> +The platform of the dais, on which the throne-chair stood, was reached +by three wide marble steps that sprang from the floor-level. At the +foot of these steps, Cohen the High-priest elect, stood clothed in a +single garment of pure white linen, that reached from his shoulders to +his feet. Attendant priests stood by, each holding one garment or +ornament, as the case might be, ready for the investiture. +</P> + +<P> +Apleon rose from his throne, a magnificent, but a sardonic figure for +all that. As he rose, soft, weird music came from an angle where a +screen of palm-ferns was placed. Though mechanical, the music was of +an exquisite character. +</P> + +<P> +Then, suddenly, swelling above the low weird music, came the voices of +a score or more white-robed priests chanting: +</P> + +<P> +"Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God!" +</P> + +<P> +George Bullen's eyes were fixed upon the face of Apleon, and he noted +the mocking, contemptuous smile that curled his lips at the language of +the chant. +</P> + +<P> +As the chant finished, Cohen turned and faced Apleon, and slowly +climbed the steps. The music had ceased now, and, amid an absolute +silence, Apleon took "the embroidered coat" from the offered hands of +one of the subordinate priests. The garment was of white linen +wonderfully, beautifully embroidered. It reached from the shoulders to +the feet and fitted the body closely, a draw-string of white linen tape +fastening the sleeves at the wrists, and drawing the breast of the +vestment close about. +</P> + +<P> +A linen girdle "four fingers wide," and long enough when tied to reach +the feet, was next put about Cohen by Apleon. Then a third priest +handed the Emperor, "The Robe of the Ephod." This was a long, loose +garment of Royal blue satin, with a wide neck-opening, the opening +bound with a wide gold band. The Robe was slipped over the head, and +it dropped to the feet of the High-priest. Upon the lower hem of the +Robe was a rich, deep fringe of alternate blue, purple, and scarlet +tassels made in the form of pomegranates. Between each pomegranate was +a golden bell. +</P> + +<P> +Still amid an absolute silence, the investiture proceeded. Apleon took +the costly and beautiful Ephod of a fourth priest. This vestment was +in two pieces, one for the front, the other for the back. They were +joined together, at the shoulders, by bands of wide gold braid, and +buckled with two of the Anti-christ covenant badges. Apleon had +provided himself with these, and no one probably, save George Bullen, +noticed of what the bucklings consisted. But nothing escaped Bullen, +for while the attention of everyone else in the place was given only in +a <I>general</I> way to the robing of the High Priest, <I>his</I> whole and +absolute attention was concentrated on Apleon, all that he did, every +varying expression of his handsome but sardonic face, and every +movement of his fingers. +</P> + +<P> +Another priest handed "The curious girdle of the Ephod." But, unlike +the ordained adjunct, as given in Exodus, in this case it was a +separate piece, and instead of being of the same stuff, was a cunningly +worked band of gold studded with many gems. The girdle handed to +Apleon, fastened with a clasp. The clasp was worth a Jew's ransom, and +like the breast-plate—presently to be slung about the neck of +Cohen—was a gift to the Temple by Apleon. +</P> + +<P> +But the gift was accursed, for among the curiously, twisted gold of the +clasp, the "Mark of the Beast" could be traced, if carefully +scrutinized. +</P> + +<P> +The Ephod Girdle being clasped, a priest handed the breastplate to the +Emperor. It should, according to the Mosaic command, have been made of +the same material as the Ephod—"of gold, of blue, of purple, of +scarlet, and of fine twisted linen." +</P> + +<P> +But in this case it was made of gold, and slung by a gold chain about +the High-priest's neck. +</P> + +<P> +The gold filigree setting for the stones, held within its cunning +workmanship that same damnable sign—"The Mark of the Beast," though +only a very keen, clever eye would have detected the foul hieroglyphic +among the twistings of gold patterning. The whole plate was about ten +inches square, the centre divided by gold ribs, across and across, into +twelve sections, each section holding a separate precious stone of +fabulous wealth. Just for a moment or two the wondrous mechanical +music stole out again upon the silence. Lovers of music recognized +part of Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony." What wondrous melody there +was in the fragment! The priests' voices chanted again, and all the +time the face of Apleon wore its mocking smile. Reading from the +top—right to left, as the breastplate hung on the breast—the stones +and their significance ran as follows: +</P> + +<CENTER> + +<TABLE BORDER WIDTH="80%"> +<TR> +<TD> CARBUNCLE,<BR>Zebulun. </TD> +<TD> TOPAZ,<BR>Issachar. </TD> +<TD> SARDIUS,<BR>Judah. </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD> DIAMOND,<BR>Gad. </TD> +<TD> SAPPHIRE,<BR>Simeon. </TD> +<TD> EMERALD,<BR>Reuben. </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD> AMETHYST,<BR>Benjamin. </TD> +<TD> AGATE,<BR>Manasseh. </TD> +<TD> LIGURE,<BR>Ephraim. </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD> JASPER,<BR>Naphtali. </TD> +<TD> ONYX,<BR>Asher. </TD> +<TD> BERYL,<BR>Dan. </TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<P> +The last piece of this wonderful Robing, was the Mitre. It was really +a turban of pure white linen, an oblong shield-shaped plate of pure +gold, being attached to the fullness of the deep, front roll of the +turban. Engraved in Hebrew characters upon the plate, were the words: +"HOLINESS TO THE LORD." Here again, keen and practised eyes would have +detected the foul sign of the "man of sin," among the wondrous, and +delicate chasing of the gold around the Hebrew lettering. +</P> + +<P> +It has taken twenty times longer to record this robing than the time +actually employed. As a matter of fact it occupied but a few minutes. +Then, at last, the work was complete, and the silence was broken. +</P> + +<P> +It was the Emperor who spoke: "Behold the Priest of the Most High God!" +he cried. +</P> + +<P> +Every soul present, save George Bullen, was more or less under the +spell of the Arch-Deceiver, or they would have caught the sneer in the +rich full voice, even as George Bullen caught it. +</P> + +<P> +True to his journalistic instinct, as well as to his new desire as a +Christian, to know well the Word of God, Bullen had read over, the +night before, the passages in Exodus and Leviticus, relating to the +robing of the High-priest, and had been struck with this fact, that the +High-priest himself did <I>nothing</I>, took no active part in his robing. +Moses, as <I>God's representative</I>, did <I>everything</I>. +</P> + +<P> +Now as he recalled this, and while he considered why Apleon should have +"acted valet" to a Jew priest, there recurred, with startling power to +Bullen, the words of prophecy by Daniel, concerning the "Man of Sin:" +"he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every God—" +</P> + +<P> +"He has purposely chosen to do this robing business, quietly setting +himself up as God," was the thought of Bullen. There was no time for +further musing. The newly-invested High-priest was speaking: +</P> + +<P> +"Bring hither the '<I>Torah</I>'—Roll of the Law." +</P> + +<P> +A serious-faced young Jew, a praying shawl over his head, bore towards +the High-Priest—the parchment scroll loosely-cased in a silken +slip-off. As he bore the sacred roll he reverently kissed the tassels +of the drawstring of the silken slip. +</P> + +<P> +The attendant drew off the cover, and dropping it across his left +shoulder, unrolled the scroll, and held it extended for the High-priest +to read. +</P> + +<P> +Cohen made a sign to a priest who held a Shophar (hallowed ram's horn) +in his hand. Instantly the priest covered his head with his "<I>talate</I>" +(praying shawl) and lifting the horn to his lips he blew "the great +Teru-gnah." +</P> + +<P> +Every Jew presently covered his head with his prayer shawl, and the +High-Priest, cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God!" +</P> + +<P> +Then turning to the scroll, he read in a curious, monotonous intone, +part of Solomon's prayer at the opening of the Temple: +</P> + +<P> +"Now then, O Lord God of Israel, let Thy word be verified (on the +morrow of this day). Thy word which Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant +David. Amen." +</P> + +<P> +Inclining his head towards the scroll-bearer, as a sign that he had +finished his brief reading, he cleared his voice and addressing his own +people, said: +</P> + +<P> +"Brethren, fathers, sons of Father Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, because that +the good hand of our God hath been upon us, we are once more restored +to our own land. No longer trodden down by stranger's feet, Jerusalem +is again for the Jew, and the Jew for Jerusalem. We meet here this +afternoon in our own Temple, reared by Jewish gold and patriotism. Our +Father's Temple, Solomon's could have been but a poor synagogue +compared to this in which we are now found. To-morrow, all the world +will be gathered to this place, (all that part of the world worth +calling <I>The</I> World) to the formal, official opening of this Temple. +To-morrow, for the first time since this city, and since "Herod's" +Temple were destroyed, we shall slay the morning and evening lamb, the +daily sacrifice ordained by our God. +</P> + +<P> +"Today we have an accredited place among the nations. There may be +special <I>Jewish</I> reasons for the coming to pass of this universal +recognition of our race, but chief among the factors that have gone to +bring all this about, is the friendship of Lucien Apleon, Emperor, +Dictator of the world." +</P> + +<P> +Cohen turned and bowed to the throne where Apleon sat, his face filled +with a smile in which pride in his position and quizzical mirth at +Cohen's allusion to the soundness of the Jewish position, were mingled. +</P> + +<P> +There was a slight movement among the kings, and other grandees, and +amid murmurs of assent at Cohen's allusion to the Emperor, the member +of the Royal confederation bowed to the throne. +</P> + +<P> +Cohen proceeded: "In spite of our position, today, fathers and +brethren, we could not maintain it a week, and certainly we could not +strengthen and consolidate it, but for our Emperor. We desire to +maintain, to strengthen our position, hence it has seemed good to the +great International Jewish committee to seek to have a covenant with +Lucien Apleon, Emperor—Dictator of the World. The covenant is for +seven years. We on our part are to serve him in every way, he on his +part to guarantee our protection—for we have neither Army or Navy—in +return for our allegiance to him. +</P> + +<P> +"This covenant, duly drawn up, is here for final signature this +afternoon. As your elected High-Priest, and representative of our +race, I shall sign it on behalf of our people, our Emperor will also +affix his signature. Then all of us, as a sign of our covenant and our +allegiance, will wear a badge which has been prepared. The badge can +be worn—like the written Law of our God, as commanded by our father +Moses, 'as a sign upon our hand, or as a frontlet between our eyes—.' +</P> + +<P> +"Many millions of the badges have been prepared, made in white metal +for <I>free</I> distribution to the poorest of the world, or jewelled, gold +or silver, for those who would fain purchase something more in +accordance with their rank, station, or wealth. The time is at hand +when no one will be able to buy or sell, save he who wears this sign." +</P> + +<P> +He paused, and turning to where a little knot of white-robed priests +stood, they parted, and showed an exquisite little table of gold and +pearl, and on the table a jewelled casket of marvellous workmanship. +</P> + +<P> +Two of the priests bore the table to the centre of the floor where +Cohen stood. He opened the casket, drew forth a small silk-tasselled +parchment roll, and laid it open upon the table. The two priests held +down the curling corners. +</P> + +<P> +A fountain pen—the cylinder of jewelled gold—lay in a hollow of the +casket. Cohen took the pen, and wrote at the foot of the text of the +covenant: +</P> + +<P> +"In the Name of our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and on +behalf of His chosen people, I Solomon Isaac Cohen (Aaron,) First +High-Priest of the new era, in the City of Jerusalem, on the ninth day +of September, 19—, (<I>world's</I> calculation) subscribe myself." +</P> + +<P> +As he lifted his form erect again, he made a sign to the two priests. +They lifted the table and bore it up to the platform of the dais. +</P> + +<P> +Apleon, without rising from the throne, took the pen and made his +signature. Two seals were affixed, Cohen and Apleon, touched them, +then the table was once more lifted to the floor level, and the ten +kings signed the covenant, <I>as witnesses</I>. +</P> + +<P> +Then every one present, save George Bullen, donned one of the badges. +In the crowding, his non-compliance was unnoticed. All the kings and +most of the princes and others, from Babylon, received massive and +costly signet rings from the hands of Apleon, himself. Each signet was +engraved with "The <I>covenant Sign</I>," as it was called. +</P> + +<P> +<I>God calls it "The Mark of the Beast."</I> +</P> + +<P> +The recipients of the rings, all wore them on the third finger of the +right hand, as did others of the minor personages. Many of the Jews, +in their enthusiasm, wore one of the "Signs" in the centre of the +forehead, held in position by a fine gold chain that passed round the +head, as well as one on the right hand. +</P> + +<P> +When the "Covenant" badges had been donned, Apleon was hailed as the +world's deliverer, the whole Temple ringing with the plaudits of the +kings and others. +</P> + +<P> +A moment, and he passed outside, and stood on the top step of the +Temple flight. Again the "Hurrahs" were raised, and caught by the +multitudes that thronged that wide marble approach to the gates of the +Temple, and caught again and again by ever more distant peoples, until +in a moment or two, from three to four million people, inside and +outside the city, were belching forth their acclaimings of a demon, +counting him almost God. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE DEDICATION. +</H3> + + +<P> +Save for the Bible record of the opening of Solomon's Temple, Cohen and +his colleague-priests, had no precedent upon which to base their order +of procedure as regarded the official opening of the Temple, and the +consequent re-commencement and re-establishment of the daily sacrifices. +</P> + +<P> +Then, too, the ideas of the Jew of the period, as regarded worship, +were more or less of a hybrid character, while the modern repugnance to +blood-shedding, and all the consequent unpleasantness of the +sacrificial ceremonies, caused the Jewish leaders to construct a very +much more simple ritual than anything approaching the original Mosaic +standard. +</P> + +<P> +One thing had been decided by them in council, that was, to make this +great epoch in their renationalization to synchronize with their New +Year, which would properly fall the next month, on October 2nd, to be +correct. The usual New Year's ceremony of Shophar-blowing would be +observed. +</P> + +<P> +Cohen, and his fellow priests, were early at the Temple, and long +before the hour advertised on the programmes—7-30, every arrangement +(from their stand-point) was complete. +</P> + +<P> +At seven o'clock, sharp, the gun was fired at the "Palace Apleon," and +the great silken flag, with its "Covenant" sign, flew out upon the +breeze. The whole city and its suburbs were astir. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly a burst of brazen music rent the more or less silent air of +the city, and Cohen and his fellow priests knew that the procession had +started from the Palace. Soon it was in sight. Oh the wonder, the +gorgeousness, the BLASPHEMY of it! Riding on a white horse, there came +first the standard bearer. The heel of the standard pole was socketted +in a deep barrel of leather that ran from the saddle to the stirrup. +The rider was a man of enormous strength, and he had need to be, to +bear the strain of the breeze that tugged at the many square yards of +white silk, of which the standard was composed. Like the flag on the +place, like the brand on the brows and right hands of many of the +multitude, the "<I>Covenant</I>" sign appeared in the centre of the standard +borne aloft by that mounted bearer. +</P> + +<P> +Behind the standard came the band, fifty mounted players. Behind the +band there was a gap of sixty or seventy feet. Then, alone, proud, +regal, handsome, mighty of stature, noble in pose, mounted on his +jet-black mare, and attired as he had been overnight, rode Apleon, the +Emperor—Dictator of the World. After him, but with fifty feet of +space between, rode the ten kings, then their respective suites. Then +came the Babylonian merchant princes, and others. +</P> + +<P> +It was a triumphal procession for Apleon. For it was <I>his</I> name that +filled throats of the acclaiming multitudes as they roared out their +"Huzzahs!" +</P> + +<P> +The scene in the Courtyard of the Temple was one of wondrous pomp, and +of even deeper significance. As Apleon rode in, a fan-fare of trumpets +gave him greeting. Then when the last intricate brazen note had +sounded, the mighty multitude drowned even the memory of the trumpets, +by the deafening roar of their Huzzahs! +</P> + +<P> +Ten bugles sounded "Silence." It took a full minute for the command to +pass from lip to lip to the uttermost reaches of the people. Then, in +the comparative stillness, Apleon dismounted from his horse, took the +diamond-studded key from the hand of the High-Priest, opened the door, +flung it wide, and proclaimed The Temple opened, "in the name of +Apleon, Emperor—Dictator of the World." +</P> + +<P> +That opening word truly translated, meant, "in the name of the Devil, +by the person of his Anti-christ." +</P> + +<P> +The High-Priest, standing on the top-step of the wide flight that led +to the porch, faced the people and priests, and began to recite +selected parts of Solomon's prayer at the Dedication of <I>his</I> Temple. +These finished, he cried, with a loud voice: +</P> + +<P> +"It having pleased our God to restore us, His chosen earthly people, +the Jews, to our own land, and to our own beautiful Zion," joy of the +whole earth, "we make the occasion to be as the beginning of a new era, +a new year. And as the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, in Egypt, +saying: 'This month shall be the beginning of months: it shall be the +<I>first month of the year to you</I>,' so we proclaim to <I>our</I> people +today, this month shall be the beginning of our New Year, and of a New +Dispensation to us." +</P> + +<P> +Dropping his proclamation loudness of voice, he slipped into his +synagogue recitative tone, as he went on: +</P> + +<P> +"On the first of the month, shall be a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing +of trumpets and holy convocation. Ye shall offer an offering unto the +Lord." +</P> + +<P> +He signed to the Tokeang—the Shophar blower—and instantly the weird, +curious, quavering, vibrating sounds broke on the still air. +</P> + +<P> +As the last note of the shophar died away, Cohen cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Let all the house of Israel, sacrifice unto the Lord!" +</P> + +<P> +Lifting his hand as he spoke, a turbaned priest led a lamb to the foot +of the altar. A gleaming knife, snatched from his girdle flashed for a +moment in the air; there was a swift movement of the sacrificial +priest's arm, a gurgle from the silent lamb, and the little fleecy +thing sank dying upon the grating before the altar. +</P> + +<P> +Only those immediately near could see all that followed, until the +moment when the carcass of the lamb was reared to the grating on the +summit of the altar. +</P> + +<P> +A strange stillness rested upon the people gathered, as another +turbaned priest brought a torch to fire the wood beneath the altar. +</P> + +<P> +Before he could reach the altar, the voice of Apleon stayed his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Let no fire be brought!" he cried, in commanding tones. "I will +consume the offering!" +</P> + +<P> +He stretched his right hand forth, the fingers closed. Then opening +his fingers, he drew back his arm suddenly, sharply, then jerked it +forward again—it was the old mesmeric pass of the magicians. +</P> + +<P> +Instantly, the interior of the altar blazed with long, fierce forks of +many coloured flames, and as they finally resolved themselves into a +blood-red fiery cloud that hung over the sacrifice, the "<I>covenant</I>" +sign floated in white amid the blood-red cloud. Another movement and +the red cloud melted away, but like a quivering golden light the "Sign" +remained an instant hovering over the altar. When that, too, melted, +it was seen that not a vestige of the lamb was left. +</P> + +<P> +Awed and silent, the onlookers wondered! For a moment George Bullen +was puzzled. Then he recalled the words of prophecy, as regarded The +Anti-christ. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>His coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs +and lying wonders … And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh +fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and +deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles +which he had power to do.</I>" +</P> + +<P> +The greatest tribute that could have been given to the supernatural +power exhibited by Apleon, was the awed silence, and the bowed heads of +all who had witnessed his satanic miracle. +</P> + +<P> +Its effect upon Cohen and the rest of the Jews, was, if possible, +greater than upon any of the Gentiles who had witnessed the wonder. +</P> + +<P> +Upon the awed silence there suddenly fell a deep growl of thunder. The +startled people lifted their heads. With almost an instantaneousness, +the heavens darkened. It might well have been a moonless midnight, so +dark did it suddenly become. +</P> + +<P> +The thunders roared and cannonaded, while fierce lightnings, like +liquid fires, raced earthwards down the blackened heavens. No one, +native of the land, or foreigner, had ever known thunder or lightning +such as now broke upon them. +</P> + +<P> +For days afterwards men were as deaf as though born thus, stunned by +the thunder; and scores lost their sight from the lightning's flash, +never to recover it again. +</P> + +<P> +As sudden as the darkness, there now came a hurricane blast that tore +at the Temple walls as if it would hurl its gold and marbles into the +valley below. No man could keep his footing in the courtyard or on +that summit, and everyone flung themselves prone to the earth—save +Apleon. He stood smiling his sardonic, contemptuous smile. +</P> + +<P> +Cohen and a few others crawled towards the wide, folding-doors of the +Temple. But the hurricane was before them, and the doors slammed to, +and, in some way jammed. +</P> + +<P> +The horses started in stampede, terrified by the storm. Apleon spoke +the one word "Soh!" and they stood absolutely still, save for a long, +shuddering kind of shiver that ran through each beast at the same +instant. +</P> + +<P> +Now, for a few minutes, the thunder roared louder and deeper, until it +drowned the thunderous roar of the wind. Peal followed peal with +hideous, horrible swiftness. The lightning was a succession of fierce, +white ribbons of blood-red flaming fire. +</P> + +<P> +For ten minutes this extraordinary storm raged. There was not one drop +of rain. Then, with a suddenness only equalled by that of the starting +of the storm, it ceased. The blackness of the heavens rolled away like +mist before the rising sun, and while all the western horizon suddenly +glowed with the fierce red glow of a furnace blaze, the sun appeared +once more over-head shining as though nought had happened. +</P> + +<P> +The procession now re-formed, in the order in which it had arrived, and +to the lilt of the gay music of the powerful band, the volatile spirits +of the multitude revived, and the loud "huzzahs" rent the air as +Apleon—the Anti-christ—passed through the waiting masses of the +people. +</P> + +<P> +George Bullen contrived to keep Apleon full in view. In a general way +no item of the procession of the ceremony at the Temple, or of aught +else had escaped him—but it was <I>in</I>, and <I>on</I> Apleon that his special +attention had been concentrated. +</P> + +<P> +He watched the procession sweep through the great gate-way of the +Emperor's Palace. Then, when the last of the guests had passed in, the +huge folding gates closed, and the multitudes began to disperse. +</P> + +<P> +The vast bulk of the people were lodged <I>out</I>side the city, and now +poured out through the gates—for, with the practical re-building of +the city, the exits had been made very numerous. +</P> + +<P> +Bullen was lodging with a Christian Syrian about half-a-mile outside +the city. He moved on in a line with one of the exodus streams. +</P> + +<P> +As he cleared the city, he became conscious that just ahead of him +there was a great and ever increasing gathering of people—a mighty +throng, in fact. Arriving at the fringe of the crowd which grew closer +and closer, as well as greater, every moment, he was amazed to see two +very striking looking Easterns, clothed in sackcloth, and standing high +upon a mound of stone. The appearance of the two men was +extraordinary. The face of the elder of the two was cast in a +wonderful mould. +</P> + +<P> +George Bullen was fairly well versed in the facial characteristics of +all the known races—<I>past</I> as well as present. But this man's face +bore no relation to any type he had ever seen depicted. Eastern, it +was, it is true, but unlike, and more beautiful than anything he knew +of. The calm of it was wondrous, and George involuntarily found +himself saying over: "Thou wilt keep him in <I>perfect peace</I> whose mind +is stayed on Thee," and instantly there flashed upon him, in connection +with that word, one other: "Enoch <I>walked with God</I>, and was not, for +God took him." +</P> + +<P> +"He might be Enoch returned to earth," he told himself. +</P> + +<P> +The other man was a different specimen. His features were strongly +Jewish marked. There was a fierceness of eye, a power for a blazing +wrath in his deep-set orbs. Not that the first man's eyes and face +were incapable of fiery indignation, but they gave indication of having +been schooled by long intercourse with the divine keeping power of the +God of Peace. +</P> + +<P> +The men were evidently preachers—prophet-preachers. They spoke +alternately, their voices clear, far-reaching, their tones perfectly +natural—there was no raising of the voice—yet reaching as far as the +farthest listener. +</P> + +<P> +Their message was a Testimony to God, to His power, His might, His +Holiness, even to His mercy. They told of judgments, near at hand, +upon all who would not cleave to God in righteousness. Then in deeply +solemn tones, they spoke of the presence of the "Mark of the Beast," +upon the persons of so many thousands of the people, and warned all who +would not discard the badge, and throw over their allegiance to +Apleon,—"The Anti-christ—that they would presently share in the awful +destruction which should overtake Anti-christ and his followers." +</P> + +<P> +A roar, savage and full as from ten thousand lions, with the snarl of +wolves in it, greeted this last part of the testimony, while a thousand +throats belched forth the cry: +</P> + +<P> +"Down with them! murder them!" +</P> + +<P> +There was a savage rush towards the sackclothed prophets. But though +the multitude of would-be murderers swept over, around, and past the +mound on which the two faithful witnesses had been standing, and though +they did not <I>see</I> them disappear, yet they were not found. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>And when they shall have completed their Testimony, the Beast that +cometh up out of the abyss shall make war with them, and overcome them, +and kill them—.</I>" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," mused George Bullen, "when they have completed their Testimony," +and not an hour, or a day before. For these are evidently God's two +faithful witnesses, Enoch and Elijah, the only two men who never passed +through mortal death, and hence are the only two saints who can become +God's witnesses, in this hideous Anti-christ time, for, as witnesses, +they must be slain in the streets of the city of Jerusalem—"<I>where +also their Lord was crucified</I>." +</P> + +<P> +There was much angry talk, and savage swearing among the enraged, +mystified, disappointed multitude, at the loss of their vengeance upon +the witnesses, but, had they known it, they had come off very lightly +in being only disappointed, for God's witnesses had the power "<I>when +any one willed to injure them, to send forth fire out of their mouths, +and to devour their enemies</I>," and in the days that were to follow this +first encounter with them, the multitude would learn this to their cost. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A LEBANON ROSE. +</H3> + + +<P> +With the disappearance of the two witnesses there came a gradual +darkening of the heavens, until in the space of a couple of minutes, +the whole district became as dark as it had been when the sacrifice in +the Temple courtyard had finished. +</P> + +<P> +Thunder and lightning accompanied the darkness, and this time heavy +rain. Baffled by the darkness, the multitude ran hither and thither, +aimlessly, wildly, in search of their homes. Presently the vivid +lightning flashes gave them fitful direction, and gradually the crowds +melted away. +</P> + +<P> +George Bullen had swerved from his homeward way, to reach the crowd +about the "two witnesses." The gleaming lightning gave him his +direction now. He was already drenched to the skin, for the rain was a +deluge. +</P> + +<P> +As he moved on through the black darkness, (illumined only with the +occasional lightning flashes) he stumbled over something. Some +instinct told him it was a human form. Stooping in the blackness, and +groping with his hands, he made out that the form was that of a slender +woman. There was no movement, and in response to his question, "are +you hurt?" there came no reply. +</P> + +<P> +The face, the lips which he touched with his groping fingers, were +warm, so that he knew it was not death, though the form was as still as +death. +</P> + +<P> +"Whoever she is," he mused, "she will die in this storm if she is left +here." So he stooped and gathered the drenched form up in his arms. +Her head fell upon his breast, her limbs were nerveless in his clasp. +</P> + +<P> +Another, a longer, a more vivid flash of lightning, came at this +instant, and showed him his path clearly, he was close to his lodgings. +</P> + +<P> +Two minutes later he had reached the door of the house. It was on the +latch, and he entered with his burden. He found his way to his room, +laid the warm, breathing form down upon a rug upon the floor, and lit +the lamp. +</P> + +<P> +By the light of the lamp he saw that the poor soul he had rescued, was +a sweet-faced Syrian girl, by whose side he had found himself standing +on the evening before, when he had stood in the throng on the Temple +mount. They had exchanged a few words of ordinary tourist-interchange, +and he had been surprised to find that she could speak good English, +though with a foreign accent. +</P> + +<P> +But realizing now that she needed immediate attention, if she was to be +saved from taking a chill, he lit a tiny hand-lamp and carrying it with +him to light his way, he went in search of the woman of the house. +</P> + +<P> +As recorded on an earlier page, the people with whom he had found +lodgment were Christian Syrians—a husband and wife. +</P> + +<P> +He went all over the premises, but though he shouted several times, +neither the husband or wife answered or appeared. There was no sign of +them anywhere. +</P> + +<P> +"They were probably caught, as I was, in the storm," he told himself, +as he returned to where he had left the rain-soaked Syrian girl. +</P> + +<P> +He had a bottle of mixture, which he always carried on Eastern travel, +as a preventive of chill. He poured out a little of the warming stuff, +and raising the unconscious girl he poured a few drops through her +parted lips. +</P> + +<P> +She drank by mere instinct. He repeated the experiment, and she caught +her breath sharply as she swallowed the second draught. A faint sigh +escaped her, her eyelids trembled, and, a moment more they unclosed. +</P> + +<P> +At first her gaze was unseeing, then slowly she took in his anxious +face. "Where—am—I?" she murmured brokenly. +</P> + +<P> +"You are safe, and with friends!" he replied. "I stumbled over you in +the road, you had fallen, somehow, in that dreadful thunder-storm." +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes met his, and for one long instant she seemed to be searching +his face. Then a weak, little smile trembled about her mouth, as she +said: +</P> + +<P> +"We met last night—I remember I thought how <I>true</I> your face was—I +can trust you, I know." +</P> + +<P> +A sigh, more of content than aught else, escaped her, and he felt how +she let herself rest more fully in his supporting arm. He gave her +another sip of the cordial, and she thanked him as some sweet child +might have done. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment she lay silent and still, then she spoke again, in a +vague, speculative way, as though she was searching her mind for the +clue: +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, yes, I remember now. The great darkness came on, after those good +men of God had spoken. And the crowd got frightened and ran hither and +thither,—to find their homes, I suppose—and in the darkness some +rushed against me, knocked me down, and—and—" +</P> + +<P> +She shuddered, as she added, "I believe some others kicked me and +trampled upon me, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Are you hurt?" he cried anxiously. "Do you feel as if any bone was +broken, anywhere?" +</P> + +<P> +She smiled back into his anxious face: "Hurt? not much! Certainly no +bones are broken. But I feel bruised and sore, and—so—" +</P> + +<P> +She shivered, as she added: "so cold!" +</P> + +<P> +He awoke to the immediate necessity for her to get out of her wet +clothes, and gently lifting her until she stood upon her feet, he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Can you stand alone, do you think?" +</P> + +<P> +"Let go your hold," she answered, "and I will see." +</P> + +<P> +Very reluctantly George released his hold of her, though his eyes were +anxious, and his hands were stretched out within reach of her, lest she +should give way. +</P> + +<P> +She put her hand to her head, as she said: "I feel a little dizzy, but +that will pass off." +</P> + +<P> +"When did you eat anything last?" he inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I had a good breakfast, before I started out this morning. If I +could lie down somewhere,—and sleep—for I slept but badly last +night—I think I should soon be all right." +</P> + +<P> +He explained that he could not find the man or wife of the house, but, +(pointing to a room beyond) he said: +</P> + +<P> +"There is a bed there, and there are female clothes hanging in a recess +(they were there when I occupied the room) go in there, dear child." +</P> + +<P> +She seemed but a child, to him, so sweet and innocent was her face. +</P> + +<P> +"Divest yourself of every rag of your wet clothes (drop them out of the +window, and I will gather them up, and get them dry for you) chafe +yourself with the towels you will find in the room, then wrap yourself +in one of the sheets or rugs, and try and sleep." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, kind friend! How good you are!" she said, softly, a deep sense of +what she owed him, (for he had doubtless, she realized, saved her life) +moving her heart strangely. +</P> + +<P> +With the shy, tender grace of a child, she caught his hand and kissed +it, leaving two great warm teardrops upon it, as she cried: +</P> + +<P> +"May God reward you! You saved my life!" +</P> + +<P> +Her long silken lashes held great quivering drops upon them. Her +hair—what swathes there were of it—had become loosened, and hung +about her in long, thick, wet tresses. Her cheeks were warmed to a +vivid tinting by the cordial, the excitement by the deep emotion that +filled her, so that, in that moment she looked very beautiful. +</P> + +<P> +He led her to the room he had indicated, and glancing around to see +that the towels were in the place, he said, "what is your name?" +</P> + +<P> +"In English?" she asked. Then without waiting for him to reply, added: +"Rose!" +</P> + +<P> +"Mine is George!" he returned. Then with a final word of: "Sleep, if +you can!" he left her. +</P> + +<P> +When the hanging over the door-way had dropped behind him, and he was +alone in his little living room, he tried to think out the many +wonderful things that had happened since he had sallied forth at +half-past six that morning. +</P> + +<P> +Taking his note-book from his breast, he tore the sheaf of short-hand +notes he had already made, along the perforated line, and began to +compose his message for the "Courier" in the code that had been +previously arranged. +</P> + +<P> +It took him an hour and a half to complete the work, as writing in +code, took longer than the ordinary method. +</P> + +<P> +By the time he had finished, it was past noon, and he wondered at the +stillness of the house. Once more he made a tour of the other part of +the premises, calling the names of both the man and woman of the house. +</P> + +<P> +They were still absent. It was very mysterious! He could not know +that they were among the scores of those who had been trampled to death +in the horrible darkness on the Temple mount that morning. +</P> + +<P> +Passing back to his room, he listened at the hanging over that inner +room, where the rescued girl lay. He could hear her softly, regularly +snoring, and decided to get his message off while she slept. +</P> + +<P> +He was a little dubious about leaving the house door unlocked, yet +feared to lock it lest the man and wife should return. +</P> + +<P> +He was gone an hour. Both going and returning, he had been struck with +the general desertedness of the streets, but realized that in all +probability every one would be resting after the scenes of the morning. +</P> + +<P> +Entering the house he found it exactly as he had left it, and beginning +to feel hungry, he hunted about for the wherewithal to make a meal. +</P> + +<P> +Deciding that his <I>protege</I> might soon be stirring, he carried into his +living-room all the materials for a meal. When he had spread his +table, he remembered the clothes for his <I>protege</I> (he had spread them +in the sun to dry, having found them where she had dropped them, by his +instructions, out of the window.) +</P> + +<P> +Passing quietly back to the hanging between the two rooms, he listened +again. This time she was awake and softly humming the air of "The +sands of Time are sinking." +</P> + +<P> +Lifting the hanging a few inches at the bottom he thrust the clothes +underneath, and called: +</P> + +<P> +"Do you feel well enough to get up, Rose? If you do, I will make +coffee, and we will have a meal!" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, thank you, good George!" she cried, with the <I>naivete</I> of +an innocent child. "I will dress and come out, for oh, I am so hungry +and thirsty!" +</P> + +<P> +He smiled to himself at her sweet child-likeness, and hurried away to +make the coffee. +</P> + +<P> +Whether the aroma of the coffee reached her senses and hurried her, it +would be impossible to say, but certainly, in an incredibly short space +of time (for a woman) she drew aside the hanging a little, and asked: +</P> + +<P> +"May I come, please?" +</P> + +<P> +He flung aside the hanging, his smile, as well as his voice saying: +"Come!" +</P> + +<P> +Then as she appeared before him, bright, fresh from her sound restful +sleep, her hair carefully groomed and coiled in a crown on her head, +her cheek glowing with the prettiest, tenderest blushes, he thought how +beautiful she was! +</P> + +<P> +A woman, evidently in years, (as she would be judged <I>in the east</I>) yet +a pure child in character and manner. +</P> + +<P> +"How do you feel, little Rose?" he asked, taking her hand in greeting. +</P> + +<P> +"A little stiff," she answered, "but that is more from the bruises than +ought else, I think, for—" +</P> + +<P> +Her cheeks warmer to a deeper tint, as she said: +</P> + +<P> +"I have a dozen or more bruises!" +</P> + +<P> +"Let us sit down," he laughed, "and we can do two things at once, eat +and talk." +</P> + +<P> +Half an hour passed; they ate and drank, and grew almost merry as they +exchanged a few notes. When, however, in response to her question: +</P> + +<P> +"But you are English, George?" he replied. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! Though as I speak Syrian perfectly, and Hebrew fairly, it seems +better for me not to appear to be English, hence my Syrian costume. I +feel I can trust you, Rose, my new little friend, so I do not mind +telling you that I belong to a great English newspaper, and as many of +those <I>now</I> in authority are opposed to our paper, I am passing as a +Syrian, that I may better get my reports, for our paper, through to +England." +</P> + +<P> +She had started when he began to speak of his connection with a great +English Newspaper. Now she interrupted him, saying, in a cautious +whisper: +</P> + +<P> +"Are you Mr. Ralph Bastin?" +</P> + +<P> +It was his turn to start now, and in amaze, he cried: +</P> + +<P> +"No, I am not Ralph Bastin, but I <I>am</I> his representative. But——" +</P> + +<P> +His voice grew hoarse with excitement, as he added, low and cautiously: +</P> + +<P> +"What do you know about Ralph Bastin?" +</P> + +<P> +She glanced frightenedly around, then with her finger raised, she +whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"The very air seems full of spies here, as it was at Babylon." +</P> + +<P> +She leant towards him until her lips almost touched his ear, and +whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"Lucien Apleon, The Emperor, has decreed that Ralph Bastin is to be +slain!" +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me more, Rose, trust me absolutely, dear child!" His voice was +very hoarse as he spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"How do you know this?" he added. "But perhaps you had better tell me +who and what you are, dear child!" +</P> + +<P> +He leant to her that his voice might be a whisper only, for he realized +her warning of a moment ago. "Do not fear, dear child, I shall hold as +sacred as my faith in God, anything that you tell me!" +</P> + +<P> +She laid her pretty little plump hand in his, and looked at him +confidingly out of her great Eastern liquid eyes, as with a beaming +smile, she said: +</P> + +<P> +"I could not be afraid of you, good George, you saved my life, and——" +</P> + +<P> +She sighed, and there was a sound of supreme content this time in the +sigh. "No," she went on, "I could not be afraid of you, my saviour +from death. And I can, I will, confide in you, for I sorely need a +friend, and I feel, I know I can trust you. I had been asking God, +yesterday, to help me, to guide me to a friend, and I feel that He has +sent you into my life at this point when I, a lone girl, need most a +friend. Someday I may be able to tell you all the story of my life. +It will be enough here, however, to tell you that, for two months, I +have been in Babylon, with my brother—my only living relative, as far +as I know. Babylon——" +</P> + +<P> +She shuddered as she repeated the name, and her face flushed scarlet, +then paled as swiftly, while a look of horror leaped into her eyes, and +she gazed fearfully round as though she feared some terror of the foul +and mighty city might even here have pursued her. +</P> + +<P> +"No tongue dare, no tongue <I>can</I> tell a thousandth part of the +abominations of that sink of iniquity. I came here with my brother +three days ago, and he has joined hands with "The People of the Mark." +He is clever, very clever! They know that, and because he will be +useful to them, he has been placed in high office among them, and——" +</P> + +<P> +She paused abruptly, and with another frightened glance around, +whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know what 'the mark' is, and what it means?" +</P> + +<P> +"Is it what has been flying over the 'Eternal City' here, in the centre +of that great white flag that floats over the Apleon Palace? I think +you must mean that, and if so it is the two Greek characters for the +name of Christ, with a crooked serpent put between them!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" the one word came in merest whisper from her, then leaning +closer to him, she went on: +</P> + +<P> +"But do you know, George, the <I>import</I> of the foul Mark?" +</P> + +<P> +"I believe I do!" he whispered back. "I believe it is what our +Scriptures call the 'Mark of the Beast.' If that be so, as I am +convinced it is, it is the brand of the Anti-christ—and——" +</P> + +<P> +He, too, seemed to feel the need of increased caution, for he glanced +fearsomely round, as he added: +</P> + +<P> +"And I believe I know who the Anti-christ will prove to be." +</P> + +<P> +She shot a swift glance upwards to the casement window, and with +upraised finger, leant towards him until her warm lips touched his ear, +as she repeated what she had said once before: +</P> + +<P> +"The very air here, seems full of spies. It was so at Babylon! +<I>Lucien Apleon</I> is THE ANTI-CHRIST." +</P> + +<P> +Again her frightened glance travelled to the casement Then she went on: +</P> + +<P> +"My brother always confided everything to me. And in telling me the +secret of the Emperor Apleon—though exactly how he learned it, I +cannot say—he never dreamed that I should have any scruples about +serving the Anti-christ. But I love God! I missed the great +'Rapture,' when God's true children were taken 'into the air' with +their Lord, but, though it cost me torture, or my very life, during +these coming days of awful persecution, I can do no other than cleave +to our Lord." +</P> + +<P> +In an unconscious gesture of loyalty to her God, she had drawn herself +up to her full height, while her vow of fidelity had been uttered aloud. +</P> + +<P> +For awhile longer they talked on together of Babylon, of "The Mark," of +Anti-christ, of the probable coming days of horror and persecution, +then a chance question of his as to how she came to learn to speak +English so well, led her to say: +</P> + +<P> +"Shall I tell you my story? The sun is too hot for you to go out for +another two hours, and——" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, tell me, Rose," he cried, not giving her time to finish her +sentence. +</P> + +<P> +He glanced towards a low Eastern couch on the other side of the room, +as he added: "But before you begin, I want to see you lying upon that +couch; after all you have passed through, and in view of unexpected +contingencies that may arise, any hour, you must rest all that you can." +</P> + +<P> +He made her comfortable, with cushions, on the couch, then seating +himself cross-legged on the floor by her side—the posture was a +favorite one of his, and had been acquired, long ago, during his +residence in the East—he bade her go on. +</P> + +<P> +"I was born," she began, "in a little village at the foot of Lebanon, +but when I was only six years old my father got work in the +neighbourhood of Trebizond, and we migrated thither. Within a week of +our arrival, at our new home, I became a scholar in a lady Missionary's +class of native children, where, among other things, I learned English. +When I was eleven, my father and mother died of small-pox, and I became +a little waiting-maid to my dear American missionary teacher. Miss +Roosevelly, living in the house, with her, of course. +</P> + +<P> +"My brother Hassan, was eight years older than me, and he lived with a +schoolmaster, in Constantinople. I had also a dear old grandmother, my +mother's mother, who lived about four miles from the tiny mission where +I lived, and, now and again, I was allowed to visit grandmother for two +or three days at a time. +</P> + +<P> +"My life was an even, regular, but never monotonous one, for I was +always busy. Then, a year or more ago, there came an awful event in my +life. I was sixteen, and I had gone to spend a few days with dear old +grandmother, and——" +</P> + +<P> +There came the faintest click in her voice, and she glanced toward the +lemonade caraffe. His watching eyes saw her need, and he reached the +caraffe and a glass, and poured out a draught. She took a big gulp, +then sipped more slowly. And while she drank, he watched her and he +realized more than ever, how true and sweet as well as how beautiful +her face was. +</P> + +<P> +Young as she was, in development she was a woman, as is invariably the +case of maidens born under tropical skies. It is true that her beauty +was, as yet, of the tender, budding type, but it was the full bursting +bud of the queen of flowers, and already foreshadowed the wondrous +brilliance of the full-blown blossom. +</P> + +<P> +Eastern though she was, she had blue eyes—forget-me-not-blue—though +the long silken eye-lashes, and the thin, arched, pencilled-like +eye-brows were raven black. When she had finished her lemonade, and +had replaced the glass on the table, she went on with her story. +</P> + +<P> +"It was the first evening of my home-coming to dear grandmother. The +sun was setting, and the roseate gold of his departing glory was +illuminating everything. How lovely it all was! The gold of that +sunset—I shall never wholly forget it, I think—was everywhere. It +glittered among the tree-tops, gilded the hill-crests, changed the +eastern horizon into a molten sea of warmest gold and colour; and——" +</P> + +<P> +"Transfigured Rose, eh," he broke in, with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +She laughed merrily as she said: "I am afraid I was forgetting myself, +talking so much description!" +</P> + +<P> +A shadow passed over her face, as she went on: +</P> + +<P> +"How quickly everything was to be changed, though! Grandmother's voice +called me from inside, Come, Rose, my child, and we will give God our +evening chant! +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid I sighed, as I turned from watching all that sunset +loveliness. It was not that I disliked our evening devotions, but +somehow felt that evening—as I have often done, in fact—that I would +fain worship God with all His evening miracle before my eyes, and would +fain then have lingered on in the glorious after-glow, though that +after-glow lasted all too short a time. +</P> + +<P> +"I turned into the house, but I did not close the door, for it would +have seemed like sacrilege to have shut out all that glory. I took my +place by grandmother's side, with my hands folded across my breast, as, +together, we chanted 'Our Father who art in Heaven! Hallowed be Thy +name.' +</P> + +<P> +"How it all remains with me, and ever will, all the little items of +that last night of dear grandma's life! I can seem to hear her voice +even now, she was very old, and it quavered and quivered like one of +our hill-country dulcimers! +</P> + +<P> +"Our chant over, grandmother prayed, she prayed extra long that night +and our quick night had come down before she had finished. I lit a +little lamp, and we went to bed. Then——" +</P> + +<P> +A shudder passed through her beautiful, reclining frame, as she +continued, and her voice had a new note in it, a note of pain: +</P> + +<P> +"It was about midnight. The whole country slept. There were sixteen +small houses in our little village. They all huddled close together, +(for once there had been a wall enclosing them) suddenly there was a +sound of gun-fire. I leaped from my bed—Ah, me! I cannot describe +it. In half-an-hour the awful tragedy was completed. Every old man +and woman was killed, slain with a sword, or hacked to death, or +speared. Babies, and little children were brained against the walls of +the houses; strong men—fathers, lovers, sons—had been murdered with +every wantonness of savagery conceivable. The only persons spared had +been the budding girls, and one or two of the best looking of the women. +</P> + +<P> +"Everything of value, that was readily portable, had been seized, each +raider keeping his own lootings. Then, at last, at a given signal, the +murderers and robbers reformed themselves into a solid company, and +rode away, setting fire to the village in half-a-dozen separate places +before they left. +</P> + +<P> +"I was, of course, one of the girls whose life had been spared. The +man who had seized upon me, when, in my fright, I had run from my bed +to the cottage door, had flashed the light of a torch upon me, and even +now I can recall the fierce delight and satisfaction that leaped into +his greedy eyes, and the manner of his mutterings: +</P> + +<P> +"Good! Good! She'll <I>sell</I> well!" +</P> + +<P> +"He stood over me while I dressed warmly, then hurried me out into the +open again. Grandmother had made no sound, given no sign of waking, +and I wondered. I wanted to go into the little room where her bed was, +but my captor would not let me—I never saw her again, and can only +fear that, if God had not already taken her in her sleep (and sometimes +I think this must have been the case), she was slain with the rest of +the old people. +</P> + +<P> +"Of the next week I have no distinct remembrance. I believe I +travelled, travelled, travelled, ate, drank, slept, but all my +faculties seemed numbed, and my mind was largely a blank. It was when +I was being taken into Constantinople, that I began to arouse from my +strange mental and physical stupor. +</P> + +<P> +"It was through the cool mist of the morning that I got my first +glimpse of the city of which I had heard so much. Santa Sophia, rising +like some beautiful dream-structure, with the points of its four light, +airy, minarets flashing in the sunlight. Then, little by little, +kiosks, tall sad-looking cypresses, sycamores, and the other +thousand-and-one wonders of that city of beautiful and revolting +contradictions, took shape and form. +</P> + +<P> +"By seven o'clock we were in the heart of the city, and breakfasting. +My captor had treated me with a certain rough kindness through all the +journey, and done his best to hearten me. He had told me my fate—to +be sold into a harem—but he had pictured it as glowingly, as +glitteringly as his rough eloquence would let him. And, with all the +blood of countless centuries of Eastern races coursing in my veins, and +in the more or less stunned, stupified condition in which that awful +night-tragedy had left me, I yielded, for the time, to the fatalism +with which we Easterns are familiarized from our babyhood. +</P> + +<P> +"My captor was no novice at the business of selling a girl, neither was +he a stranger to the house to which he had taken me. For, after +breakfast, he showed me into a little room with one quaint, Arabesque +window. In this room there was a bath, and every toilette requisite, +while, from a tin box that he brought in, he took out a number of most +exquisite outer and under garments. Telling me to make myself as +beautiful-looking as I knew how, he presently left me. +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid that for a time I was too overwhelmed to do more than +weep. Then as I remembered that it would be the worse for me if I +angered my master, I bathed and anointed myself, though I remember how +once I paused, as I scented my body, and said, through my blinding +tears: 'This is like preparing myself for a sacrificial altar.' +</P> + +<P> +"I was sitting an hour later, on an ottoman in the room outside the +bath-room, when I heard voices, and steps, and a moment later my +master, accompanied by a little tub of a man, with fatted-hog kind of +face, greasy-looking, and wrinkled with fat, out of which peered two +tiny black eyes—like currants stuck in a bladder of lard—and +twinkling most villainously, entered the room. +</P> + +<P> +"He was very richly dressed, and bore the name of Osman Mahmed, and, as +I afterwards learned, he was very high in office and in favour with the +Sultan. He was fabulously rich, and, excepting the Sultan, had the +most extensive harem in the city. +</P> + +<P> +"I had, as a child, learned the Turkish tongue, and had no difficulty +in following all that passed between the seller and buyer. Then after +being lightly pinched, pressed, and squeezed, and ogled, the bargain +was struck, the money for my purchase was paid, and my captor was +instructed to take me, veiled, to the purchaser's palace at two o'clock +that afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +"I was taken, as arranged, to the Palace, and given in charge of the +head eunuch. A few minutes later, two female slaves took me to a large +dressing-room. Here I was bathed again, and sprayed with a very +valuable perfume, a curious blending of rose and patchouli. +</P> + +<P> +"I have three crosses tatooed on my body. Each cross consists of +eleven blue dots, one on each of my shoulders, and one on my breast, +and I noticed a look of horror come into the faces of the two +slave-women who were attending me, but neither of them asked any +question of me. +</P> + +<P> +"My hair was well-groomed, and beautifully dressed, and strings of gold +sequins, and glittering jewelled stars were twisted amid the swathes of +my hair. Then came my robing in garments, so rich, so wonderful, that +they almost took my breath away. When the very last touch had been +given to this wonderful toilette, one of the attendants gave me a +<I>cachou</I> from a box to sweeten my breath. +</P> + +<P> +"Then, for a time, I was left alone, a strange and awful fear of some +coming evil stealing over me. For I could not forget the looks of fear +and of terror of the slave-women, at the sight of the crosses on my +arms and breast. +</P> + +<P> +"Wondering what type of place I was in, I got up and looked out of the +casement. A marble court lay just below the window, and, in the centre +of the court was a most beautiful marble basin, quite twenty feet +across, from the heart of which there rose a fountain, with a graceful +<I>jet d' eau</I>, flinging its spray high in the air. Two flights of +balustraded steps led down into the basin, a few white doves fluttered +about the steps. Flower borders and beds were artistically dotted +about the court; and cool-looking, shady bowers clung to the high walls +like swallow-nests to the house-eaves. +</P> + +<P> +"But the beauty of all I saw could not drive from me the strange sense +of dread of some coming disaster. Suddenly, a huge Sudanese eunuch +appeared, and signed for me to follow him; and a minute later I was +ushered into a room where the chief eunuch, and that hideous little tub +of a Vizier, who had bought me, were. +</P> + +<P> +"The fat, greasy face was distorted with rage, the eyes were blood-shot +and fierce, and his voice was almost a scream, as he cried out to me: +</P> + +<P> +"'What is this they tell me of you, you Lebanon beast? Are you one of +those dogs, the Christians?' +</P> + +<P> +"'I am!' I replied. +</P> + +<P> +"The fat little beast on the dais spat at me, the foul expectoration +falling short of my robe by barely a foot. +</P> + +<P> +"'Your body, the body I bought,' he yelled, 'is damned by the cursed +sign of the cross, they tell me.' +</P> + +<P> +"I gave him no reply, and he yelled, 'I will see for myself.' Then to +the two eunuchs, he yelled: 'Strip her!' +</P> + +<P> +"The men did his bidding, and nude, and shamed, I stood before that +foul tyrant. +</P> + +<P> +"'Bring her closer!' he yelled, and the big Soudanese lifted me bodily, +and dropped me upon my feet on a mat not a yard from the Vizier. +</P> + +<P> +"He glared at the tatooed cross upon my breast, then with a fearful +curse, he spat full into my breast, the vileness running down the +sacred sign. Then, as a fiendish look filled his face, he ordered the +chief eunuch to send me for sale in any market that would be open for +such carrion. +</P> + +<P> +"At a word from the chief eunuch, the big Soudanese snatched me up in +his brawny hands, tucked me under his arm, as a father might laughingly +carry his five-year-old boy, and bore me off. +</P> + +<P> +"The rest of the story is all too wonderful for more than the merest +outline. I was being taken through the streets, veiled, of course, to +a dealer in girls, when suddenly I saw my brother Hassan, coming +towards me. My veil, of course, would prevent his knowing me, but +tearing off my veil, I leaped towards him, crying: +</P> + +<P> +"Hassan, Hassan, save me!" +</P> + +<P> +She paused in her recital, her voice choked with deep emotion for a +moment, then, as she recovered herself, she went on: +</P> + +<P> +"'How wonderful are God's providences! His ways are past finding out!' +</P> + +<P> +"Hassan was walking—when I met him—with an officer of the American +Embassy—Hassan was clerking for this officer—and though the eunuch +tried to make a fuss, when he knew who the officer was, he scuttled +back to the Palace as hard as he could go. +</P> + +<P> +"That night, Hassan and I left the city, lest there should be any +attempt to seize me, and—" +</P> + +<P> +She paused suddenly, and he leaped to his feet at the same instant, +for, from the direction of the city, there came sounds of loud and +prolonged hurrahing. +</P> + +<P> +"I will go out and see what is going on!" he said. "Perhaps," he +added, "in these disturbed times, it would be well for you to fasten +the doors, while I am gone. Whether the people of the house or I, +return first, you can easily ascertain who it is, before you open. +Meanwhile, find your way to the other parts of the house, and make +yourself coffee or anything else that you may need—and," +</P> + +<P> +He held out his hand—: "Good bye, for the present, and, another time, +you must tell me the rest of your wonderful story, and especially how +it came about that you knew so much of Christianity and yet did not +share in the 'Rapture' of Christ's own." +</P> + +<P> +With the warmth of her Southern, Eastern nature, remembering how he had +saved her, she lifted the hand he gave her, to her lips, and kissed it +passionately, leaving two heavy tear-drops on it, when she dropped it. +</P> + +<P> +A moment later she was alone. She had barred the outer doors, when he +left. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +HERO-WORSHIP. +</H3> + + +<P> +Neither George Bullen, or the "Lebanon Rose," whom he had so +opportunely saved, had had any idea of how rapidly time had fled during +that afternoon. On reaching the street, and looking at his watch, +George was amazed to find that it was past six o'clock. Moving as +briskly as it was wise to do, so as not to call attention to himself, +he made his way to where the noise of the multitude told him that +something extra was happening. +</P> + +<P> +He soon discovered that the excitement came from a kind of impromptu +mass meeting that had followed upon the appearance of Apleon riding on +his now celebrated black charger. +</P> + +<P> +The first thing which struck Bullen was the fact that, already, every +one seemed to be wearing the "Covenant" sign—"The Mark of the Beast." +He himself appeared to be the only person who was not wearing it. +And—was it fancy? or did Apleon's eyes fix on him with a momentary +scowl. +</P> + +<P> +The second thing which struck him, was the intense admiration and +homage of the great crowd—all classes alike seemed absolutely +infatuated—for this Emperor-Dictator of the world, Lucien Apleon, "The +Anti-christ." +</P> + +<P> +Two cries rose loud and laudatory from the multitude "Who is like +Apleon? Who dare oppose him?" It was the ultimate fruit of the +jingoism of the previous years! +</P> + +<P> +"This is what John beheld," Bullen told himself, "<I>all the world +wondered after the Beast</I>!" They are, already, worshipping him, in +their poor deluded hearts, as a God! +</P> + +<P> +Almost, it seemed to the young journalist as though there was headed up +in this one man—the Man of Sin—all that men through the by-gone ages +had worshipped. The captivating power of ancient Babylon. The mighty +prowess of the Medo-Persian, the power that held all the world in +subjection and awe. The Grecian polish. The Roman legal acumen, and +martial perfection. All these things seemed combined in this one +notable man. And added to all this, there was his resistless +attractiveness, his beauty of face, his grace of form, his wondrous +voice, his regal air—"<I>all the world wondered after him</I>." +</P> + +<P> +As, after awhile, he walked slowly homewards, George Bullen asked +himself the question: +</P> + +<P> +"How can it have come to pass, that in comparatively so short a time, +it should be possible for all the world to be ready to yield an almost +idolatrous obedience to one man?" +</P> + +<P> +Unconsciously to himself his pace slackened, it was as though his mind +had willed to have time to review things that should answer his +question, before he should reach his rooms, and the consideration +should be broken into. +</P> + +<P> +"There was first," he mused "that gradual falling away from the Truth +of God, for a full half of the nineteenth century—very gradual, very +slow, and very subtle at first, but growing bolder each year, until, in +the early part of the first decade of the twentieth century, men +calling themselves Christians, taking the salaries of Christian +ministers, openly denied every fundamental truth of the Bible—Sin, the +Fall, The Atonement, The Resurrection, the Immaculate Birth of Christ, +His Deity, the Personality of Satan, the Personality of The Holy +Spirit, and everything else in God's word which clashed with the flesh +of their unregenerate lives. +</P> + +<P> +"Then there was the giving heed to seducing spirits <I>and teachings of +demons</I> (demonology, called spiritism) '<I>forbidding to marry</I>' +(doctrine of Lust, known as 'Free Love.') +</P> + +<P> +"Great forces were at work during the latter part of the nineteenth +century, and more especially in the early part of the twentieth, all of +which were preparing the way for the Anti-christ. +</P> + +<P> +"What blinded intellects called 'Progress,' was really Apostasy. And +Scientists, Materialists, and Humanists, and the <I>world's</I> teachers +were all looking for some great outstanding genius, some super-man. +</P> + +<P> +"The Believing Church, before the 'Rapture,' had its Hope, a Hope given +by God of <I>A Man</I> who should head all things up in Himself, and clothe +His Church with His own glory. And that Man came, the Man Christ +Jesus, the Lord of Glory. And all the time the world had <I>its</I> hope, +and just as Christ, the Hope of the Church, said '<I>I will come again</I>,' +so He also said, as regards the world's hope, '<I>Another shall come in +his own name</I>,' and now—" +</P> + +<P> +George Bullen paused in his walking and looked back to where the +laudatory shouts of the deluded multitude, still rose around Apleon. +</P> + +<P> +"And now," he continued, "that other <I>has</I> come, come in his own name, +and the world has received him. As late as nineteen hundred and eight, +one of the world's so-called 'great thinkers,' a D.D., too, said: +</P> + +<P> +"'We still wait for <I>The Genius</I> who shall state our fundamental faith +in accordance with that insight which the <I>modern man</I> has gained.' +</P> + +<P> +"That '<I>great thinker</I>,' if he is living, ought now to be satisfied, +for his '<I>Genius</I>' has appeared. And if he still possesses a Bible, +let him turn to Revelation, thirteen-eighteen, and he will know how all +his fancied man-progress was prophesied for nearly two thousand years +ago in the words: '<I>Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding +count the number of the beast; for it is</I> THE NUMBER OF MAN; <I>and his +number is 666</I>.' +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, in a hundred and one ways, the coming of the Anti-christ, and +the consequent worship of his Satanic-energized personality, was +well-paved; for the world relegated to the limbo of the past, God's +evangel as effete, superstitious, worn-out, and it was then prepared +for the Devil's lie, the Great Delusion." +</P> + +<P> +By this time George's feet had carried him to the door of the house. +He knocked, as arranged before leaving, three slow, deliberate knocks +and two others, sharp, quickly-following. +</P> + +<P> +Almost instantly Rose appeared at the door. She had prepared an +evening meal, and over the supper-table he told her all that he had +seen and heard, while out, adding: +</P> + +<P> +"The whole world will be abjectly at the feet of that man of Satan, +presently." +</P> + +<P> +For a few moments they talked on together, then she rose to clear the +table. His eyes followed her in all her movements, for, in spite of +her bruised stiffness, all that she did was done so deftly, and every +movement of her beautiful form was full of the grace of perfect ease. +</P> + +<P> +Now, almost for the first time, it came to him with full seriousness, +"What am I to do with her? since, saving her, housing her I have, to a +certain extent, made myself responsible for her?" +</P> + +<P> +When she returned to the room, after clearing the last thing from the +table, he said: +</P> + +<P> +"We must face your future, Rose! What are your plans, or haven't you +any?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid I have no plans," she returned. "You see, good George, I +was so terrified at all I heard from my brother, that I simply got away +as quickly as I could, without any plan for the future, other than that +there has always been, at the back of my mind, an idea, that should I +ever (from any cause whatever) become a refugee, I should make my way +to England. For, rightly or wrongly; I believe the peoples of all the +world have always associated with England the two thoughts of safety +and liberty." +</P> + +<P> +Lifting her eyes to his, a bright smile filling all her face, she went +on: +</P> + +<P> +"I am not without money. I have nearly twenty-five pounds with me. +The question is, where would one—who would rather die than wear the +'Mark of the Beast'—be safest? In England, do you think?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know, Rose. <I>My</I> place is there, because my <I>duty</I> lies +there. And now that I have, I think, finished all that I can do here, +I ought to be getting back, at once. I ought, I think, to go to-night. +At ten-thirty there is a good service to the West, but I cannot leave +you alone here. I fear that death, in some way, must have overtaken +the people of this house, so that I cannot remain here, but must leave +the house to its fate. But about you, Rose? I cannot leave you, like +the house, to your fate!" +</P> + +<P> +With the absolute trust of a little child, she stretched her hands +towards him, saying: +</P> + +<P> +"Good George, my saviour already from one dreadful death, save me again +please. Take care of me until we get to England, take me with you, I +will be no expense to you, I will give no trouble, I will—" +</P> + +<P> +Her clinging, child-like trust moved him greatly. He took the two +pretty, plump little hands in his, and holding them in a clasp, firm +and tight, as though by his grip upon her he would give her an +assurance of safety, he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Take you with me, little one, of course I will. And now that is +settled we will talk over our plans, for I think we ought to leave by +that ten-thirty Western-bound service. Each hour after to-night, the +service will become more crowded, and we had better avoid the crowd, if +we can." +</P> + +<P> +George Bullen had never had much to do with women. No woman had ever +quickened by one extra beat his heart or pulse. Yet now he felt +himself strangely, mysteriously drawn to this sweet young Lebanon girl. +He realized that it was no time for love-making, yet he would have been +of marble not to have been moved by her trust in him, and by her sweet, +gracious personality. +</P> + +<P> +At ten-thirty that night they were clear of the place, and +homeward-bound to England. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ANTI-"WE-ISM." +</H3> + + +<P> +Sir Archibald Carlyon, proprietor of the "Courier," and Ralph Bastin's +employer, had just arrived at the "Courier" office. The whilom +middle-aged, sprightly old man was as bowed and decrepit as a man of +ninety. +</P> + +<P> +As he entered the editorial private room, Ralph, for one instant, did +not recognize him. Then, as he realized who it was, he sprang forward +with an almost son-like solicitude, and helped him to a chair. +</P> + +<P> +"Sir Archibald, what has happened?" he cried. +</P> + +<P> +The old man lifted weary, hopeless eyes, out of which all the old-time +flash had gone, and nothing but heavy dullness remained. "Have <I>you</I> +heard from my boy, from George?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No, why, is there anything the matter, Sir Archibald?" Ralph's tones +were full of alarmed anxiety. +</P> + +<P> +The baronet's hand had been thrust into his breast-pocket, as he spoke. +He took out a letter and handing it to Ralph, groaned out the two words: +</P> + +<P> +"Read that!" +</P> + +<P> +Ralph caught his breath as his eyes took in the first lines: "Dear +Uncle, by the time you receive this, I shall be beyond <I>this</I> life, +though <I>where</I>—in that outer world, that world beyond—I can—not +tell." +</P> + +<P> +Ralph had not turned to the signature, he knew the writing too well, +and knew it for bright, happy jocund George Carlyon's. He read on: +</P> + +<P> +"All that has happened in the world, of late, has driven me mad. Dear +old Tom Hammond wrote me fully of his change of heart, and besought me +to face the whole matter of my 'eternal destiny,' as he termed it. I +simply did not reply to his letter. Three days later he was taken, +with all those others, to God. Since then I have plunged into +everything trying to drown thought, and remorse, but I cannot, so I am +ending all—there's a mad thing to say, as if death could end all. +Though I do not doubt but what many other fellows will do what I am +doing now. Good bye, good old Hunky Archie, +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Your unhappy, rotten,<BR> + "GEORGE."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +As Ralph lifted his eyes from the paper he found Sir Archibald's fixed +upon him, and the anguish in the poor old dull eyes drew tears to +Ralph's. +</P> + +<P> +"We found him," cried the old man, "in the boathouse, by the lake, with +a bullet through his temples. My poor boy! My noble boy!" +</P> + +<P> +Dry-eyes, but with a soul full of anguish, his features, too, twisted +with the anguish of his soul, the old man rocked himself for a moment +in his chair. +</P> + +<P> +Looking up suddenly, he startled Ralph by the bitterness of his tones, +as he said: +</P> + +<P> +"God forgive me! But I could find it easy to curse our clergy, our +ministers, our bishops, our teachers, for that when we looked to them, +and <I>paid</I> them, to tell us the right, the true thing, they let us go +on deluded by the belief that attendance upon the <I>outward form</I> was +sufficient to make us sure of Heaven in the future. Why, Bastin, good +fellow, do you know that more than half of the clergymen with whom I +was <I>well</I> acquainted, are among those whom God has left behind, and +not one of those whom I know, thus left, has a mite of concern about +their state, but seem to have gone right over to the Devil, if I may so +say it. What does it all mean?" +</P> + +<P> +Ralph began to speak kindly, sympathetically to him, but the old man +suddenly interrupted with: +</P> + +<P> +"And yesterday's article in 'the Courier' upon the opening of that +Temple at Jerusalem, with all that about the 'Mark of the Beast;' that +mock (I suppose it was <I>mock</I>) miracle, with the fire consuming the +sacrifice, and then that awful portent of darkness, thunder, and +lightning—but no rain. It reminded me of the scene at Calvary, when +the Christ was crucified. What <I>does</I> it all mean, Bastin?" +</P> + +<P> +"What I have said in that article, I believe, Sir Archibald. The +events in Jerusalem, during the last three days are the beginning of +the reign of Anti-christ. For years, blinded by Satan whom most of us, +unknowingly, served, and blinded by what we termed the 'Progress of the +Age,' and of the World, but which ought to have been recognized for +what it really was, the growing of the Apostasy, which has now begun to +be avowed and absolutely universal—blinded, I say, by all this, Sir +Archibald, we suffered many mighty forces to stealthily, powerfully +work together so that the climax that has come upon us, was made +absolutely easy. +</P> + +<P> +"If we had known our Bibles only a tithe as well as we knew our +newspapers, we should have seen that all we were glorying in, under the +name of 'Progress,' was but a perfecting of human systems, leaving God, +and His purposes, and His plans utterly out of the question. We went +to our churches, our chapels, we had a '<I>form</I> of Godliness,' but we +tacitly, and controversally, in print and speech, 'denied the <I>power</I> +thereof.' We not only made it possible, but easy 'for one man of +Master-mind to assume universal dominion, and to be the object of +universal worship, as Apleon, the Anti-christ, soon will be.' +</P> + +<P> +"And now, Sir Archibald, we are on the eve of a gigantic blend of all +religions, with all commercial undertakings. The more I study God's +word in the light of all that is happening, the more clearly I see this. +</P> + +<P> +"How often, in the old days—say from the mid-eighties—professing +Christian men, when expostulated with as to the difference between +their professed creed of the Sunday, and their daily practice in +business, would say, 'oh, bosh! religion is one thing, business is +another!' Then, as the years moved on, all kinds of trading concerns +sprang up professedly religious, and conducted on professedly religious +lines. But even the truest Seers in the Church of God would hardly +have dared to predict that in a comparatively few years the final +outcome of this trend in events would be an absolute coalescence into +one vast system of the world's many religious systems and of the +world's commerce. The most that the Seers of God, in His church, dared +to say of the future was that the <I>principle</I> of such a <I>combined</I> +system was suggested by the text of Rev. xiii. For the second Beast +'caused the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first +Beast … And he had power … to cause that as many as would +not worship the image of the Beast should be killed. And he causeth +all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a +mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads, and <I>that no man might +buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or +the number of his name</I>.' Here, for nearly two thousand years, was the +principle of this Hell-devised, Devil-developed combined system of +religion and commerce, prophesied, but now few even of God's choicest +saints realized all that would mean. +</P> + +<P> +"The nineteenth and early twentieth century Christendom had lost the +Bible ideal of Christianity, and had substituted a very material idea +for God's idea. The two decades—last of the nineteenth, and first of +the twentieth centuries—were marked by immense religious activities, +but while a merely religious movement might manufacture a Christendom, +it could never make Christians. +</P> + +<P> +"To be religious is one thing to be a Christian quite another thing. +The vast bulk of the members of the so-called Christian Churches of +those years, had never been born again from above. +</P> + +<P> +"Christian in name (by virtue of membership in a Church; or by virtue +of their subscription to a creed; or by a careful attendance upon the +forms of their own particular church) they were yet <I>only religious</I>, +because God's word regards those only as <I>Christians</I> in whom Christ +indwells, and none can be indwelt by Christ save those into whom He has +come in the birth from above. ('Born again' ones.) '<I>Except</I> a man be +born again, he CANNOT <I>see</I> the Kingdom of God' much more live in it. +</P> + +<P> +"'That which is born of the <I>flesh</I> is flesh,' and 'flesh and blood +cannot inherit the Kingdom of God,' but only those <I>spiritually</I> +born—born from above. We only become Christians by <I>re</I>-generation. +</P> + +<P> +"In the years immediately before the 'Rapture,' <I>professing</I> +Christians, and even <I>professedly</I> Christian ministers, men who had +taken vows before God to preach the 'whole counsel of God,' and who +received their salary avowedly for this purpose, scouted, and often +publicly denied the necessity of the New Birth. Blind leaders of the +blind, they surely will have the greater punishment. +</P> + +<P> +"But to return to the other thought. +</P> + +<P> +"The last twenty years of the nineteenth century, and more so the first +ten years of the twentieth century, was marked as an age of +centralization and concentration of all kinds of interests, commercial, +and religious. Each year, the trusts and monopolies in the commercial +world became more and more concentrated, until it has become perfectly +easy for Lucien Apleon, Emperor-Dictator of the World, to govern and +control (from that beautiful, hellish city, Babylon the great,) every +business interest in the world. +</P> + +<P> +"Two days ago, at Jerusalem, the 'Covenant Sign'—so called—but which +God calls the 'Mark of the Beast'—was donned by three or four million +people, in the <I>holiday</I> spirit. But what was donned voluntarily, in a +holiday spirit, forty-eight hours ago, will have to be <I>branded</I> on +every one's person in the universe in three and a half years time—or +less—or else the refuser of the degradation will have to seal his or +her loyalty to God by their life. +</P> + +<P> +"In three and a half years from now, Sir Archibald, the image of Lucien +Apleon, will be set up in the Temple of Jerusalem, and, I believe, in +every other great religious centre of the World—St. Peter's, Rome; St. +Paul's, London; and so on in all our great cities, and world centres. +I have been studying this subject naturally, and I find that one great +scholar (Hengstenberg) says, that though <I>one</I> image is spoken of, yet +having regard to the sense of the original, 'a multitude of images is +meant.'" +</P> + +<P> +"But <I>religiously</I>, Bastin, religiously?" cried the old man. "How did +the condition of things in the end of the nineteenth, and the beginning +of the twentieth centuries, help to make it possible for all the world +presently to <I>worship</I> the Beast, and his image?" +</P> + +<P> +There was an almost childish querulousness of tone in the old baronet's +questioning. +</P> + +<P> +"All those years," began Ralph, "were marked by a wonderful activity on +new lines of deliverance for the human race, from the ills that had +grown up around the vast bulk of that race. God's plan was for man's +<I>regeneration</I>, a change of heart and life—a working from the centre +to the circumference. But the churches—<I>all</I> denominations—of the +years we are speaking about, began endless schemes of deliverance that +the man, as they hoped, might be changed from the <I>out</I>side—that is to +say, man's idea of benefitting man was by an <I>outward</I> reform. +</P> + +<P> +"They failed to recognize the fundamental fact that all the 'Ills of +Humanity,' so called, proceeded from man's natural depravity, from man +<I>himself</I>, and not from his environment. We failed to see that a +<I>reformed</I> race would only mean a perpetuation of all the old natural +lusts, and presently, bring about a return to the old condition of +things, while a <I>regenerated</I> race would hold reform in it, and that +that reform would not only be perpetual, but ever increasing in its +perfecting. +</P> + +<P> +"Then, too, the great religious denominations became fired with the +idea of a consolidating, unifying process that should smelt down all +denominations into one. To do this every type of religion should find +a place. What would it matter if one or more of the religions denied +the Deity of Christ? that others did not accept the Bible as the +Inspired word of God and so on? 'The doctrine of Christ,' was +gradually eliminated from almost all preaching and the doctrine of a +divine humanism—'The divinity of man,' became largely the new cult. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe, from all that I can gather, one of the first steps towards +this elimination of 'the doctrine of Christ,' could be traced in the +continued elimination from the various denominational hymn-books (as +<I>new</I> ones were issued beginning as far back as the late seventies) of +hymns relating to the facts of the Atonement and other kindred +subjects, and the substitution of odes, poems, etc., in which +aspiration took the place of experimental religion. The hymn-books of +more than one, or two, or three denominations, showed this retrograde +movement, through their several successive issues. +</P> + +<P> +"Then, side by side with this <I>Anti</I>-christian movement, there went on +silently that gathering out from the world, and from the merely +professing Christian church, those who were, by virtue of their New +Birth, through faith in Christ, the recipients of Eternal life, and +who, when that glorious 'Rapture' took place awhile ago, were caught up +into the air as a <I>body</I> of living believers to be joined for ever, to +their head—Christ; thus robbing the world of what Christ Himself +called 'the salt of the earth.'" +</P> + +<P> +With a groan, Sir Archibald cried: +</P> + +<P> +"God help us, Bastin! What fools we were!" +</P> + +<P> +Then with a weary upward look into Ralph's face, he rose to his feet, +saying: +</P> + +<P> +"I must be going. I've arranged to meet the lawyers in half-an-hour +from now. Good-bye, dear fellow. I will come up to town to see you, +or you must come down to see me, before the wind-up of the paper. +Good-bye." +</P> + +<P> +The two men wrung each other's hand, then parted. +</P> + +<P> +Ten minutes later George Bullen and Rose arrived. Amazed to see his +friend with an extraordinary beautiful girl, Ralph was presently +listening to all the wonderful story of their meeting, etc. +</P> + +<P> +Later on, when, for a moment or two, the two men were alone together, +in the inner room, Ralph asked George what he proposed to do with the +beautiful girl? +</P> + +<P> +"There is but one thing I can do," he replied. "I must marry her, and +that soon. It is no time, in the ordinary sense, to be thinking of +'marrying and giving in marriage,' yet, under the circumstances, I can +do no other. I care for her already, as I never cared for any woman, +and her affection for me is touching in its clingingness." +</P> + +<P> +He smiled a little sadly, as he added: +</P> + +<P> +"It is well that there is a little company of us here in London, +Believers in God, and therefore believers in marriage." +</P> + +<BR> +<HR WIDTH="60%" ALIGN="center"> +<BR> + +<P> +George Bullen and Rose were married within the week of their landing in +England. The ceremony took place in a little company of believers, who +gathered on Sunday (old-count of time) and once on a week-night, in a +little hall that had been used for a Sunday School in the old days. +Sunday Schools, like many of the other religious institutions, of the +old days before the "Rapture," were quite a thing of the past. +</P> + +<P> +Marriage was one of the things of the past. Some years before the +"Rapture," a booklet entitled "We-ism" had been published, in which the +author had unblushingly declared: "Women, <I>absolved from shame</I>, +servitude, and inequality, shall be enfranchised, owners of themselves +* * * We believe in the sacredness of the family and the home, <I>the +legitimacy of every child</I>, and the inalienable right of every woman to +the absolute possession of herself." +</P> + +<P> +The doctrines and practice of "affinity," the "problem" plays, and +"sex" novels, of the first decade of the twentieth century, had all +materially helped to make the unregenerate mind and heart ready to +receive "free love" in its widest, grossest forms. While a certain +teaching of "Christian Science" had had an overwhelming power in the +same direction.[1] +</P> + +<P> +All these forces had helped to make the doctrine of illicit love +acceptable in these early days of the Anti-christ reign, so that it was +only among the little gatherings of true Believers, that marriage was +sanctified into the sacrament it had been in the <I>good, true</I> old days. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +[1] We prefer, in a book of this character, to keep back the actual +terms of the filthy statement. Author. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +"THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION." +</H3> + + +<P> +The three-and-a-half years since the Covenant with Lucien Apleon, on +the night before the opening at the Temple in Jerusalem, had been +signed, had practically expired. +</P> + +<P> +God's judgments had been seen in many ways upon the earth during these +forty-two months. The position which Apleon now held, as the "World's +Dictator," had not been the work of a day. Wars, no longer local, but +practically universal had, for many long months at a time, been the +order of the history of the world. "Nation shall rise against nation, +and kingdom against kingdom." +</P> + +<P> +These wars occupying only months at this period, would have occupied +scores of years had they been events of the mid-nineteenth century. +But with the perfection of hideousness—one might safely write +<I>Hellishness</I>—of war's latest devices the work of destruction, and +almost annihilation became short and sharp. +</P> + +<P> +Aerial warfare helped to bring about this consummation more speedily. +The firing of a bomb or of a torpedo from an aerial war engine often +accomplished in an hour what could not have been accomplished, a few +years before, under months, often years of old-fashioned war. +</P> + +<P> +These fearful conflicts were not confined to those of kingdom and +nation against kingdom and nation, but citizens of one city fought with +themselves, civil war was "on the rampage." The lust of war, the lust +of blood, born of vile passions, burned in the breasts of men and +women—for with the growth of the "woman's rights" question, and the +establishment of the "equality of the sexes," bands of women fought +bands of women. +</P> + +<P> +These Amazons, indeed, wrought even fouler cruelties and butcheries +than the men, for as there is no fouler odour under the sun than that +of rotted lilies, so the depths to which "the lilies of the human +kind"—women—will descend is fouler and deeper than the abysses of +fall of men. +</P> + +<P> +The hideous wars—international, civil, and <I>personal</I> +conflicts—resulted, as wars ever do, in famine and pestilence. Only +in this case, these later horrors had been fearfully aggravated, +terribly prolonged. +</P> + +<P> +The picture of the famine is most striking. The rider of the black +horse is shown bearing a pair of scales, typifying the exactitude of +weight—for single grains counted in these days. A man's full day's +wage would purchase only a pint and a half of wheat (a choenix) and +that would form but a <I>scant</I> feeding for the day for himself. But +there will then not be wheat enough to go round, and people will hail +barley with the rapture of starving souls. +</P> + +<P> +The tendency of the days in which we write these lines, is an +ever-increasing luxury in eating and drinking, and this, too, among all +classes. +</P> + +<P> +That tendency will increase more and more, so that the inhabitants of +the famine stricken earth will feel scarcity more than they would +otherwise have done. +</P> + +<P> +The pestilence followed the famine, until from war, famine, and +pestilence a fourth of the entire population of the earth was swept +away. +</P> + +<P> +During the last twelve months quite a crop of false Christs had arisen. +Each of these, in his turn, had had a certain following for a brief +period, and each had had an untimely end. +</P> + +<P> +The only really notable impostor was a man who had suddenly appeared in +London, and who had immediately attracted immense attention. His +knowledge of scripture, of the prophecies especially, was marvellous to +those whom he addressed. No one ever attempted to verify his +quotations, much less his connections of scriptures. For as Jannes and +Jambres, Pharaoh's two chief Magicians, withstood Moses by demonology +and jugglery, so, by a hellish jugglery, did "Conrad the Conqueror" (as +this false Christ styled himself) juggle with the scriptures. +</P> + +<P> +Apleon, the Anti-christ, had, apparently, taken no notice of any of the +petty tribe of mushroom-like false Christs. That he was well +acquainted with the sayings and doings of each of them goes without +saying, as it was equally so as regarded this more presumptious of the +crew "Conrad the Conqueror." There were many, in London especially, +who wondered that Apleon did not appear and refute this man's claims, +if they had no foundation. +</P> + +<P> +The evident success of the imposter wrought his own downfall. Inflated +with his success he publicly declared that Apleon would perish beneath +a blast of his (Conrad's) nostrils, and announced that on a certain +evening at ten o'clock on St. Paul's steps he would publicly re-state +his claims, and also defy Apleon. +</P> + +<P> +In the first year after the Rapture, the whole of the shops and +warehouses on both sides of Ludgate hill, with all the purlieus at the +back of each range of buildings, had been demolished, so that a huge +open space, spreading fan shape, (the handle at St. Paul's) swept out, +ever-widening, on the left as far as the approach of Blackfriar's +Bridge, on the right through Farringdon Street to the Viaduct Bridge. +</P> + +<P> +Within this space a million people could not only have congregated, but +have heard distinctly, without any effort, the merest whisper spoken +into the latest phone discovery the "Hearit." As, too, every bit of +that open space was many yards below the level of St. Paul's steps, +every one had a perfect view of all that transpired there. +</P> + +<P> +The night in question, when the latest and greatest of the false +Christs, "Conrad the Conqueror," had arranged to defy Apleon, proved to +be exceptionally dark. +</P> + +<P> +Three quarters of a million people were gathered in "The Fan"—that +open space had been christened "The Fan" on account of its shape. It +was admirably lit by the new light "Radiance," while a perfect blaze of +radiance illumined the huge scarlet-covered, scarlet-draped platform +that had been erected immediately in front of the steps of the +Cathedral. (It was all very stagey, very theatrical, but then that was +characteristic of the new age and regime.) +</P> + +<P> +The false Christ appeared, and was greeted with a curious mixture of +groans and hisses, and of cheers. (A keen judge might have been +pardoned if he had said that the bulk of the cheers were ironical.) +</P> + +<P> +Speaking in his ordinary voice, the suction plates of the "Hearit" +transmitted his words to the farthest remove of that "Fan" so that all +could easily hear. +</P> + +<P> +With a kind of gentle gravity, at first, he began by saying: +</P> + +<P> +"Nearly nineteen hundred years ago when I walked this earth, at my +first advent, I warned my disciples—and through them the world—that +many false Christs would come, but when it was said 'Lo, here!' or 'Lo, +there!' that they were not to go hither and thither, many of these +false Christs have appeared, and have tried to lead the people astray. +Oh foolish people! How easily were they bewitched! And how worse than +foolish the imposters were. They might have known that I should not +have suffered them to take My Name in vain." +</P> + +<P> +For ten minutes he talked thus, then suddenly changed his tone, and +raising his right arm—it was long, thin, gaunt, and the wide-flowing +sleeve of his white seamless robe, fell back showing the lean limb +almost to the shoulder—he poured out a defiant speech against Apleon, +adding "I have challenged! I wait for my challenge to be accepted." +</P> + +<P> +A sudden, awesome silence fell upon all the gathered, listening +thousands. They had not long to wait, for in that same instant a +fierce crimson light shone in the dark heavens above them, and looking +up they saw a fiery ruby scroll like flame rushing downwards through +the sky. +</P> + +<P> +An instant later the fiery scroll resolved itself into the characters +of the "Covenant Sign" ("The Mark of the Beast.") With a swoop, like +that of some crimson Albatross, the thing descended until it seemed +almost to touch the platform where the challenger "Conrad" stood. +Then, to the amaze and delight of the vast audience in "The Fan," out +from convolutions of the central sign of the "Mark," Apleon stepped on +to the platform. +</P> + +<P> +His aerial chair (on this occasion made in the form of his own "number +and sign") rose swiftly again and hovered mid-air. +</P> + +<P> +The false Christ was as white of face as his robe. He visibly cowered +and shrank before the coming of the giant figure of the World's +Dictator, as the latter strode in three long strides across the +platform. +</P> + +<P> +For one brief second, amid the hush and silence of the absolute awe +that rested on the mighty audience, challenger and challenged stood +facing each other. Then Apleon's voice was heard, as with a sweep of +his hand he uttered the one word: +</P> + +<P> +"PERISH, thou Fool!" +</P> + +<P> +As his hand swept the air in the direction of the false Prophet, a wide +sheet of flame leaped out of space, enveloped the white-robed figure, +and it was instantly consumed. As at the burning of the sacrificial +lamb at the dedication of the temple at Jerusalem, so now, the flame +that had consumed the challenging imposter floated a yard or two over +the spot where he had stood, and slowly resolved itself into "The Sign +of the Covenant" ("Mark of the Beast,") in pure ruby flame. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>He doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven +on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the +earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do.</I>" +</P> + +<P> +Apleon turned towards the mighty gathering, and said triumphantly: "So +perish all impostors!" +</P> + +<P> +A thunder of cheers rose from three quarters of a million throats! +Instantly followed by the chorus of the Apleon ode! +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Hail! Hail! Hail Man of Men!<BR> +World's Deliverer!<BR> + APLEON!"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Like a living thing of writhing flames, the brilliant car swept +downwards from the sky, where it had waited. Almost, it seemed to skim +the scarlet floor of the platform and to scoop up its owner, for none +saw Apleon lift a foot to step into it, yet the next moment he was +soaring away seated within the upper convolution of the serpent sign. +</P> + +<P> +For hours, thousands of the people remained within the sweep of the +great "Fan," talking of all that had occurred, and more absolutely +convinced than ever that Apleon was God—<I>their</I> God. +</P> + +<P> +Thrice during the next hour after Apleon's departure, three separate +faithful souls—one of the three a woman—raised a testimony against +the Man of Sin. But each one met with death within thirty seconds of +their first utterance. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>And white robes were given unto everyone of them; and it was said +unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their +fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they +were, should be fulfilled.</I>" +</P> + +<P> +There were, scattered over all the earth, many thousands of believers +in God, praying "Thy kingdom come." Many of these had turned to God +during the first days of the shock of realization of "things as they +truly were," when the "Church" had been translated to the heavenlies. +</P> + +<P> +The number of these believers had been added to considerably, during +the awful times of war, pestilence and famine, for these horrors (so +plainly predicted in the word of God) had taught them to read their +Bibles with new eyes, and to receive its truths and obey them. Of +these believers, many had been, and many, many more were yet to be +"<I>slain on account of the Word of God, and on account of the testimony +which they held fast</I>. +</P> + +<P> +The whole of the three-and-a-half years had been rife with growing +horrors, with licentiousness, and every evil possible to the +unregenerate mind, and heart, and life, when full license is given to +them. +</P> + +<P> +The license and indulgence permitted—even arranged for, in the first +instance—by the apostate church with a view to the more perfect +enslavement of the world's worshippers, had brought forth a full +harvest of evil. The effect of license is disorder, and presently +anarchy. For three-years-and-a-half the apostate church had grown in +assumption and in all abominations, and the effects of the license +permitted, and <I>fearfully abused</I>, had produced a condition of things +which became such an intolerable burden, that the time had become ripe +for the authority in all this, to be destroyed. +</P> + +<P> +The apostate church was the cause and the authority for all the excess +of evil of the times, hence the ten-kingdomed confederacy which had at +first buttressed the impious system, now, by united action, destroyed +it. "<I>And the ten horns which thou sawest, and the Beast, these shall +hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat +her flesh, and shall BURN HER UTTERLY WITH FIRE. For God did put in +their hearts to do His mind, AND TO COME TO ONE MIND, and to give their +Kingdom unto the Beast, until the words of God shall be accomplished.</I>" +(Rev. 17:16-17) +</P> + +<P> +"Man is a religious animal!" And Lucien Apleon, endowed with special +wisdom of his father and Master—the Devil—recognized this necessity +for a religion from the outset of his career. +</P> + +<P> +The Devil has always recognized religion, encouraged it, and has even +instigated it in a hundred forms, during the last 6,000 years. Only +every effort of his Satanic power and force has been directed towards +the luring of the religious soul <I>away from God</I>. The Devil is a +Ritualist! He loves to entangle souls in a ritual, and the more +sensuous the ritual, the better he is pleased, because such +sensuousness and ritualism ministers to the "flesh," and while men and +women's religion is fleshly, it cannot be spiritual. And the FATHER +seeketh spiritual worshippers, "for they that worship Him, must worship +Him in Spirit and in Truth." Then, too, Satan knows that all +religiousness that is of the "flesh," tends to make its devotees +anxious for the development of a good-self within them, while true, +spiritual life <I>in Christ</I>, leads to the continual consciousness that +"<I>in me, that is IN MY FLESH, dwelleth no good thing</I>." +</P> + +<P> +Lucien Apleon encouraged religion, but not the religion of the Lord +Jesus Christ—for he, Apleon was The <I>Anti</I>-Christ. It was he, with +his emissaries, taught and guided by Satan, the Arch-enemy of God, and +of His Christ, that had subtlety, secretly energized the +world-religion, that followed the taking away of the church. That +world-wide system had been an amalgamation of all the then existing +false systems of religion. With the taking away of the church every +type of license had been gradually permitted to the worshippers in the +churches of this infernal system, until, at last, as we have seen, the +governments had been compelled to abolish what at first they had helped +to establish—for license had bred such a character and temper in the +peoples that it became a menace to all order. +</P> + +<P> +All this was part of Satan's organized plan, for, when the moment of +the crushing out of this licentious, abominable religious system +arrived, his plans, as regarded Lucien Apleon, The Anti-christ, were so +perfected, by the ripeness of the world for the Anti-christ rule, that +all else seemed plain sailing. +</P> + +<P> +The poor, duped world knew Apleon only as the great SUPER-MAN, "long +looked-for, come at last," the World's Deliverer, who was presently to +be universally acclaimed as the World's Dictator. +</P> + +<P> +The world had long been familiar with the system of private chaplains +attached to great men's households. It was familiar knowledge to them +that Dan, the Free-booter, (in the days of "The Judges") must needs +have a renegade, runaway Levite for a priest, his salary thirty +shillings a year, a suit of clothes and his victuals (as much as a +renegade was worth). Absalom could do little, in his revolt, without +the religious brand, so must needs have Ahithophel. And down to their +own times, the World, at the period of Apleon's coming, was familiar +with private chaplains. +</P> + +<P> +Apleon's chaplain, a swarthy-skinned Jew (to all outward appearance,) +was undoubtedly like Apleon himself, a Satanic resurrection, or if not +a resurrection, certainly energized by the same infernal power. The +Holy Ghost calls this man "The False Prophet." He exercised all the +authority of Anti-christ, "<I>in his presence</I>," as well as in his +absence. <I>Eight</I> times the emphatic word "<I>he causeth</I>" is written of +him, by the Holy Spirit, and a more hideous, lying, extraordinarily +wicked catalogue of deeds is no where else to be found in the world's +history: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>He causeth the earth, and those that dwell in it</I>," (does that refer +to the foul spirits who dwell in that awful under-world, from which we +believe the Anti-Christ, as Judas re-incarnated came, or does it refer +only to dwellers on the earth? It may well mean <I>both</I>!)—"<I>To worship +the first beast</I>." +</P> + +<P> +As well as his co-associate, Apleon—The Anti-christ, the false Prophet +not only claimed the power to work miracles, but he <I>did</I> work them, +showing a baleful but powerful supernatural control over the forces of +nature. "<I>And he doeth great miracles … And he deceiveth those +that dwell ON the earth by reason of the signs which it was given him +to work in the presence of the Beast</I>." In Egypt, three thousand four +hundred or more years ago, it was demonstrated by Jannes and Jambres +that there is a supernaturalism of the Devil, as well as of God, +<I>against</I>, as well as <I>for</I> God. +</P> + +<P> +Both Anti-christ and his subaltern, the false prophet, dealt largely in +the miracle of fire. The <I>two witnesses</I>, who had testified that they +had come from God, had consumed their persecutors, again and again by +fire, and the Hell-born imposters felt the necessity of showing that +they, too, could command fire. +</P> + +<P> +Utterly destroyed by the ten kings, the world was without an organized +religion, and was ready for the fouler, fuller rule of Satan—the +worship of Anti-christ, and his image. +</P> + +<P> +As God had ever had a Trinity of personality and power in Himself, so +Satan in his damnable, deceivable counterfeiting has now <I>his</I> trinity. +Himself (Satan) the embodiment of evil, the suggester, creator, +energizer, he makes a <I>mock</I> Christ—Apleon, the Anti-christ, answers +to the second Person of the divine Trinity. While Apleon's chaplain, +the false prophet, answers to the third person of the divine Trinity. +</P> + +<P> +Energized by Satan, even as Anti-christ himself is, the false Prophet +becomes a mighty force among the world's peoples, persuading them that +Apleon really is God, and worthy of worship. The whole world has seen +and heard of the marvellous miracles of "The Prophet," as he is called. +</P> + +<P> +The infatuation of all the world for the Man of Sin, Lucien Apleon, was +almost absolute and complete. He ruled the world, every department of +it—social, political, commercial, religious. He blasphemed God. He +blasphemed the translated Church that occupied the Heavenlies with her +Lord. +</P> + +<P> +Day by day, week by week, month by month he grew bolder, more impious, +more cruel, more persecuting to the saints that were then living to God. +</P> + +<P> +And through all this time Enoch and Elijah continued their "witness" +for their Lord. As judgment prophets, they had been sent in this age +of judgment, to resist the awful, the gigantic blasphemies of +Anti-christ, and to give to the poor, vain, deluded world its last +awful warning. For bad as had been the apostate Church, so recently +destroyed, the worship of Anti-christ himself, would be infamously more +impious. +</P> + +<P> +The world hated them, yet <I>feared</I> the two witnesses. More than once +when blatant blasphemers, agents of Apleon, had openly opposed them, +and cursed them and their witnessing, these witnesses of Jesus Christ, +"<I>the faithful and true witness</I>," had sent forth fire from themselves +and consumed their enemies. And the world had learned to fear them, +though they ignored their warnings. +</P> + +<P> +Many times, too, they had wrought fearful, havoc-making miracles, so +that as it was with the Egyptians so, the days of Moses, so it came to +be with all the peoples who witnessed the miracles of these prophets, +Enoch and Elijah, for they shut the Heaven, in many places, "that rain +should not fall during the days of their prophesying." They turned the +waters into blood, and "smote the earth with every plague as often as +they willed." Until the people hated, and <I>feared</I> them, yet, all the +time, they hardened themselves against God, and the testimony of the +two prophets, as Pharaoh hardened himself against God. +</P> + +<P> +The multitudes learned that though they were absolutely powerless to +hurt the TWO WITNESSES themselves, yet, given that THE WITNESSES were +not present the mob found that they could work their will upon their +followers—and they did, continually. +</P> + +<P> +It was the morning before the great event that had been announced, the +nature of the coming event was not known, though a hundred speculations +were rife. The city was astir early, for the night had been too sultry +for much sleeping, and everyone was more or less excited, as to what +would be the great event which the next thirty hours—more or less—was +to bring. As the sun mounted higher and higher the whole of the +districts around the city belched forth their tens of thousands of +curious people of every nationality, their goal the city itself. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly—the suddenness was like some magical effect—the two +worst-hated beings in all the world, appeared on a mound of marble +blocks, within a hundred yards of and <I>out</I>side the Jaffa Gate. +</P> + +<P> +They were God's two gracious, faithful WITNESSES. The multitudes began +to converge towards the spot where they had suddenly appeared. (It was +a curious fact, however much people might hate the testimony of the TWO +WITNESSES they seemed to have no power to pass on, when once the men of +God began to preach.) +</P> + +<P> +"Men and brethren of every clime," rang out the voice of Enoch. "Once +again, in the name of Jehovah—Jesus, we lift our voices to warn you of +the shortness of the time left unto you in which to repent, and to turn +unto God. +</P> + +<P> +"Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die? as die you certainly will under +the breath of the Christ, when He presently shall come—for He shall +'slay with the breath of His mouth.' +</P> + +<P> +"We preach not the gospel of the grace of God which, aforetime, before +'The Rapture,' was preached, that gospel which was good news of glad +tidings to all sinners. That gospel told how He had lived on earth for +over thirty-years—God inhabiting a human body, for God was in Christ +reconciling the world unto Himself—it told how He died a death of +shame and agony, a substitute for sinners, so that whosoever should +believe on Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. And as +many as believed on Him gave He power to become the sons of God. +</P> + +<P> +"It told of His coming again to receive all those sons of God, dead or +living, unto Himself in the Heavenlies. Less than four years ago He +came. Thousands who knew the truth, but had not accepted it, before He +came, did so after the RAPTURE of the saints, and thousands of those +have already sealed, and many more thousands will yet, seal their faith +with their blood. +</P> + +<P> +"The days of our testimony draws shorter now, we have few more +opportunities of warning you, and of witnessing to our God. But here, +once more, this morning, we preach unto you the gospel of the Kingdom. +The gospel of the coming Kingdom of Christ. +</P> + +<P> +"'For He shall reign whose right it is, and of His kingdom of peace, +and joy, and love there shall be no end.' For nearly two thousand +years men have prayed 'Thy kingdom come.' It is coming soon, but +before He begins His reign, He shall put down all enemies under His +feet. None will be able to hide from Him for His eyes will be as a +flame of fire. +</P> + +<P> +"Those who will <I>now</I> seek Him, accept Him as their king, whether He +comes in their life-time, or whether they lay down their lives as +faithful witnesses to His coming, all such we proclaim, shall live the +glorious life which He has for such." +</P> + +<P> +The crowd numbered a hundred thousand now, and the majority of them +kept up a sullen murmur against the preaching. +</P> + +<P> +A native prince of a notable eastern realm, plucked a javelin-type of +weapon from his cumberband and hurled it full into the face of the +preacher. It never reached its mark, but, boomerang like, it returned +to the thrower and shattered and entered his right temple. +</P> + +<P> +But for the density of the crowd, the eastern would have dropped to the +earth like a stone—for he was dead. +</P> + +<P> +A way was made for a few to drag the body clear of the mob, then, once +clear, those who dragged it thence returned to the crowd. "Without +natural affection,"—a trait of the Times—had degenerated into +"without common humanity." +</P> + +<P> +For half-an-hour longer THE TWO WITNESSES preached, warned, pleaded +with the multitude. Then they stepped from the pile of marble blocks, +and passed quietly away. +</P> + +<P> +As was customary after every such session of testimony, the crowd split +up into many groups and discussed the whole situation. +</P> + +<P> +On this occasion some five hundred men and women, mostly Jews, who had +received the testimony,[1] were moving off in a body, when an unlocked +for incident occurred. +</P> + +<P> +Through all the witnessing of God's two prophets, there had stood among +the listening crowd, a tall, swarthy-faced man, richly attired, a Jew +by race, (that was evident from the marked Hebrew lines of his face). +The expression of his face, during the WITNESSING, had alternated +between mocking and rage. Now his eyes followed the departing band of +men and women who were loyal to the Gospel of the Kingdom. +</P> + +<P> +With a scornful, devilish laugh, he pointed to the departing people, as +he cried: "If we cannot kill the spawn that preaches, why not kill the +hatched-out ones?" +</P> + +<P> +The crowd was ripe for anything. With a roar, like unto Hell itself, +they raced after the godly band and in a moment surrounded them, +brandishing the long murderous knives of the east, and revolvers of the +west. +</P> + +<P> +The foul work of wiping out the whole band of faithful ones began. +Every shot went home, every knife found a faithful heart. The twin +lusts of hate and of religious fanaticism burned in the breasts of the +mob. It was a carnival of cruelty and blood. Everyone wanted to see +it. Other thousands hearing the sound of the shots, poured through the +gates of the city. Everyone wanted a sight of the <I>entertainment</I>—for +this the slaying was regarded, as, of old-time, Rome entertained +herself by filling the eighty thousand seats of the great theatre, to +see the Christians thrown to the lions. +</P> + +<P> +There was not a coign of vantage to which the mob did not climb. They +climbed upon the roofs, the balconies, held themselves perilously upon +the sloping verandas, they stood upon window-sills, and hung from +electric light pillars, and tram-line standards. They shouted, and +sang, and urged upon the slayers to mutilate as well as kill "the +carrion." +</P> + +<P> +Then, suddenly, above all the din, and above even the crack of +revolvers, the great song of Apleon, that foul ode of idolatrous +laudation, set to most wonderful music, rang out from thousands of +excited throats. The song was Hell-born, and hellishly sung. +</P> + +<P> +When, a moment later the whole mob had trampled upon the slain +believers—wantonly, heedlessly trod upon them,—in their passage +towards the city, the swarthy Jew who had incited the crowd to their +deed of blood, lit a cigarette, and crossed to where his aerial-chair +waited him. He stepped into the upholstered seat, and turned his head +to watch the mob, then with that evil laugh of his, he muttered: "Men +are but sheep after all, and will follow any bell-wether!" +</P> + +<P> +To his waiting driver, he said: "Esdraelon." The next moment the chair +rose in the air, and like some wondrous bird soared away, northwards. +</P> + +<P> +The swarthy Jew was Apleon's Chaplain, the false prophet. +</P> + +<P> +Jerusalem was enormously crowded. Thousands upon thousands of people +had come up from Babylon, as well as from every part of the world. The +news had been flashed all over the earth, that some world-important +event in connection with the Emperor-Dictator, would take place during +this last week of the first three-and-a-half years of the "Great +Covenant." +</P> + +<P> +At the time of the offering of the Morning Lamb, just as the course of +officiating priests were preparing for the slaughter of the lamb, +Apleon's resident viceroy, entered the Temple enclosure, followed by a +military detachment, and, accompanied by Apleon's chaplain, he whom God +the Holy Ghost has called the false Prophet. The latter ordered the +priest in charge of the "Course," to cease the offering, and to the +amazed protest of the priest, he laughed scornfully, vouchsafing no +other explanation than that it was his and the Emperor's command, that +<I>all</I> Jewish worship-ritual should cease. +</P> + +<P> +The priests could do no other than obey the command, enforced, as it +was, by the presence of the Viceroy, <I>and the military force</I>. +</P> + +<P> +The High-Priest lived a mile away from the Temple. One of the minor +officials went off to apprise him of this strange new order. +</P> + +<P> +As the man made his way down the marble road to the city level, he met +a ponderous motor-driven trolley of great length—the thing was +evidently bound for the Temple. Two hundred workmen followed behind +the trolley, and the Temple-messenger noticed that on the trolley, +lying beside the huge coffin-like packing-case that formed its chief +burden, were a number of hoisting and hauling tackles, with a pile of +handspikes, jacks, etc. +</P> + +<P> +It was an hour before the messenger returned, the High-Priest +accompanying him. By that time wonders—infernal wonders—had been +wrought. +</P> + +<P> +From the packing case there had been taken a gigantic image of Lucien +Apleon, and it had been reared upon a plinth of dark green marble, upon +the tessellated platform <I>within</I> the Temple. +</P> + +<P> +The statue was of gold, and upon the green marble plinth was engraved: +"I AM THAT I AM!" +</P> + +<P> +In amazed, frightened horror, the High-Priest gazed for one moment upon +the idolatrous abomination, then, as his blood boiled with a holy, +righteous indignation, he thundered forth the words: +</P> + +<P> +"Thou shalt have no other God before me. +</P> + +<P> +"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, … Thou shalt +not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am +a jealous God—." +</P> + +<P> +"Take that foul, idolatrous thing hence!" he cried, with passionate +warmth. His eyes were fixed upon Apleon's chaplain, (the false +Prophet) whose mocking smile, as he stood by the gang of workmen, +angered him beyond measure. +</P> + +<P> +Not a man moved at the order of the High-Priest, and he thundered forth +his command again: +</P> + +<P> +"Take that abomination down, and hence, or I will call upon Jehovah to +send His judgment fire down and consume you all, and the idol as well." +</P> + +<P> +With a blasphemous oath, the false Prophet, spat in the forehead of the +fulminating Priest, and hissed: +</P> + +<P> +"Silence, fool, idiot, driveller!" +</P> + +<P> +As the foul spittle touched the face of the Priest, he fell prone upon +his back on the pavement of the Temple. A dead hush fell upon everyone +present, for as they gazed upon the face of the dead Priest they saw +that the whole forehead became filled with the "Mark of the Beast." +</P> + +<P> +The silence of this awesome hush was suddenly, startlingly broken by a +peal of mocking laughter. It came from Lucien Apleon's deputy, the +false Prophet. +</P> + +<P> +Then, more startling still, the lips of the golden image parted, and in +deep, solemn tones the idol cried: +</P> + +<P> +"So perish all who shall dare to oppose the Emperor Lucien's will." +</P> + +<P> +This was no trick. It was not a mechanical device within the image. +It was not a clever piece of ventriloquism. Of this we are +assured—the image actually spoke. God's word cannot lie, and John, +under the command of God, wrote it down: "<I>It was given the false +Prophet to give spirit to the image of the Beast, that the image of the +Beast should even speak</I>." +</P> + +<P> +"<I>To give SPIRIT to the image</I>!" What does that mean? Does it mean +that life was given to it, temporarily? Who shall say? Certainly it +<I>spoke</I>! +</P> + +<P> +Unseen, unnoticed, at the very moment that the High-Priest fell, slain +by the false Prophet, there had entered the Temple, Cohen, who had been +High-Priest for the <I>first</I> year of this new Temple's history. +</P> + +<P> +He slipped away as the image uttered its speech. He met many of the +priests of other of the Courses, as they were approaching the Temple, +also numbers of the devout Jews of the city and its suburbs, and many +from other parts of the world, who had been specially drawn hither by +the news that had been flashed world-wide, as to some great event about +to happen in Jerusalem. +</P> + +<P> +"Stay!" he cried. His looks told of something serious, and in an +instant he was the centre of an eager, anxious, enquiring crowd of Jews. +</P> + +<P> +"Jehovah help us!" he went on. "For those who would be true to Him +now, must be prepared for flight or for death. Apleon, is a traitor! +'<I>He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him; he +hath broken his covenant.</I>' Psalm lv. 20. '<I>He confirmed a covenant +with us for seven years</I>.' Daniel ix. 27. '<I>The words of his mouth +were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were +softer than oil, yet were drawn swords</I>.' Psalm lv. 21." +</P> + +<P> +Cohen, even while he had been speaking had led the crowding Jews away +from that main road, and now, in a <I>cul-de-sac</I>, he was continuing his +words. +</P> + +<P> +"Blind! Blind! that we were, all of us, I, especially, for my Gentile +friend, the editor of 'The Courier'—London daily paper—warned me. He +told me of the meaning of our own prophet Daniel's words, '<I>In the +midst of the week</I> (the seven years of the covenant we made with that +apostate) <I>he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease</I>.' +</P> + +<P> +"This he has done this morning. The priests were stopped in their +preparations for the morning sacrifice. +</P> + +<P> +"'<I>And,</I>' said our father, Daniel, '<I>for the over-spreading of +abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation</I>.' +Daniel ix. 27. +</P> + +<P> +"Brethren, of the House of Israel, the Lord our God is one God. I am +no Mehushmad, but in common with many of our rabbis, I have read the +Gentile New Testament, and there, in the words of the Nazarene Prophet, +(Matt. xxiv. 15, 16.) He prophesied exactly what has come to pass this +morning in our beautiful Temple, for he said: +</P> + +<P> +"'<I>When ye</I> (that is we of the House of Israel) <I>therefore, shall see +the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand +in the holy place</I> (of the Temple)—<I>whoso readeth, let him +understand:—then let them which be in Judaea flee into the +mountains … and pray ye that your flight be not on the sabbath day. +For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the +beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be</I>.' +</P> + +<P> +"Jehovah help us, brethren! This morning has convinced me that these +times are upon us. What <I>this</I> day will bring none but Jehovah can +tell! My last word to you, my advice to you all, is, flee this city, +flee the neighbourhood. For weeks I have had it borne in upon my soul, +that the man we have covenanted with, was working some deep, subtle, +hellish scheme. Now he hath shown his hand, there are but three +courses open to us, <I>idolatry</I>—worshipping that idol set up in our +holy place, yonder; <I>flight</I>; or <I>death</I>." +</P> + +<P> +Even as Cohen harangued his crowd of priests and Jews, Apleon rode up +the white marble road to the Temple. The Hebrew crowd was quite hidden +from any observation from that main road. It was well for them, +doubtless, that it was so. +</P> + +<P> +A moment or two after Apleon and the mighty throng which followed him +had passed, the crowd of Jews left the <I>cul-de-sac</I>, and silently, +anxiously dispersed in various directions. +</P> + +<P> +Cohen found himself walking with the man who had been Hight-priest last +year. Together they conversed in low, serious, guarded tones, until +they suddenly discovered themselves close up to a mighty throng +gathered about the now well-known witnesses, Enoch and Elijah. +</P> + +<P> +The two priests paused to listen to the witnesses' denunciations of +Apleon, whom they designated "The Beast."—"The Anti-christ." Both men +had listened often before to these prophets of God, and both had often +been well-nigh convinced of the truth of the testimony of the two +witnesses. +</P> + +<P> +"It is said," whispered Cohen, to his fellow-priest, "that these two +men are the two prophets of the Most High God, Enoch and Elijah—those +two of God's servants who never passed through death." +</P> + +<P> +"The three and a half years of their witnessing," replied the second +priest, "have been crowded with incident, miracle, and much that has +been supernatural. They say that no man has seen them eat. That, like +Elijah, when upon earth, they too have been super-naturally fed. Then, +too, nothing has been able to harm them. Apleon (the priest's voice +was lowered to the merest whisper) has directed his agents to war +against them over and over again. They have shot at them, hurled +vitrol upon them, and tried to seize them, to bind them, but as they +have themselves testified again and again, nothing can harm them <I>until +they have finished their testimony</I>." +</P> + +<P> +Cohen bent closer to his fellow-priest, as he whispered: "The book of +Revelation, in the Gentile New Testament, declares that '<I>they shall +prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sack-cloth. +And when they have completed their testimony, the Beast that cometh up +out of the abyss</I> (I believe that is Apleon) <I>shall make war with them, +and overcome them, and kill them</I>.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Now if this come to pass, then they will die to-day, for it is a +thousand two hundred and sixty days, this very evening, since they +began their preaching, and——. But, listen, to what the one of them +is saying." +</P> + +<P> +The voice of Enoch rang out as it had done five thousand years before, +when he had prophesied, saying, "<I>Behold! the Lord cometh with ten +thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all; and to convince +all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they +have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly +sinners have spoken against Him—</I>." +</P> + +<P> +But now the message of the prophet had in it testimony as well as +warning: +</P> + +<P> +"Have we not warned you for three years and a half, that the man, +Apleon, whom you have all trusted in, was but the tool of his father, +the Devil? Have we not told you often that he worked upon your deluded +minds and imaginations for one purpose only, to keep you from 'The God +of Salvation,' and that, presently, he would set up his own image to be +worshipped in that gilded thing of unbelief, upon that mount, yonder?" +</P> + +<P> +A peal of derisive, mocking laughter greeted this statement. +</P> + +<P> +The voice of the prophet cut the laughter, with its supernatural +incisiveness, so that it rose clear and distinct above the laughter: +</P> + +<P> +"And now all that we prophesied has come to pass. The image of Apleon +(the abomination of desolation) spoken of by Daniel the prophet, has +this morning been set up in the Temple over there. '<I>And that Man of +Sin … opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, +or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the Temple of +God, showing himself that he is God</I>.' 2 Thess. ii. 4. +</P> + +<P> +"Upon the pedestal of his image, that was reared this morning, he has +caused to be engraved the very name of our Jehovah God—'I AM THAT I +AM!' as he supposes it to be, because it is thus translated in the +Bibles of the world. There is no sense in that way of putting it, as +there is no sense, nothing but vanity and coming failure and fall, in +that 'Man of Sin' himself. But he has chosen to ape Jehovah-God by +using '<I>I am, that I am!</I>' instead of the true translation which has +evidently been hidden from him and which is: 'I AM HE WHO AM FOR EVER!" +</P> + +<P> +"<I>He is Anti-christ, that denieth the Father and the Son</I>. 1 John ii. +22. The Scriptures have been issued by millions, every soul of you +here has had an opportunity of knowing the things whereof we again +testify. You have heard, or read, or both, (or you could have done if +you would) that he, the Man of Sin, '<I>would cause an image of himself +to be made, that he would give life to it, and that the image should +speak</I>' (Rev. xiii. 14, 15). All this has happened this morning, and +all else will happen that is prophesied. Therefore we cry: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die? Why should ye be stricken any +more? Ye will revolt more and more. From the sole of the foot even +unto the head there is no soundness in you, but wounds and bruises and +putrefying sores: Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your +doings from before God's eyes; cease to do evil. Turn ye, turn ye, for +why will ye die?</I>" +</P> + +<P> +Strangely affected by the power and earnestness of this witness of God, +Cohen and his fellow-priest turned reluctantly away. In the heart of +each of them was the determination to be clear of the Jerusalem +neighbourhood that very forenoon, if possible. In fact before one +o'clock had struck, that mid-day, there had taken place a really +remarkable exodus from the city and its neighbourhood. Of these, many +were Jews, in whose composition there was deeply engraved a deep-seated +antagonism to all idolatry. +</P> + +<P> +Then, too, there were many "Kingdom believers" (by what other name can +we call them, since, having missed Salvation by the "Gospel of Grace," +they now served God, while waiting for Christ's coming to set up His +kingdom.) Many of these fled the city and its neighbourhood, for they +counted not their lives dear when it came to a case of blasphemy and +idolatry. Yet, because the love of life is inherent with the race, and +because, too, these "Kingdom believers," learned to bring others to +God, before the final judgments came, and knowing that it was written +"that as many as will not worship the image of the Beast shall be +killed," they fled Jerusalem. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +[1] The Author, in common with every other public speaker, and writer, +on these themes, has been so often asked the question, "What of my +loved ones who are out of Christ, how will they fare when we are gone, +and the Church is gone?" Let me say that the more I study the +Scriptures of the times of which this volume speaks, the more I am +convinced that of the many who are brought to accept Christ (in the +Gospel of His coming to reign, "the Gospel of the Kingdom,") through +the sudden translation of the Church, even though they be ill-taught, +perhaps only half-hearted, they will, under the preaching of the TWO +WITNESSES, be wholly brought into fellowship with Christ, and will, +themselves in turn, become faithful witnesses to the TRUTH. There is +nothing in Scripture to warrant the belief that the preaching of the +TWO WITNESSES will be confined to Jerusalem, and it is surely +reasonable to suppose that London, Edinburgh, New York, Chicago, +Berlin, and all other chief cities, will hear their voices in witness +and warning. They will doubtless have thousands of converts, Jew and +Gentile alike, or where will the great multitude whom John saw, come +from. But all those left behind when Christ comes, who may be won to +Him afterwards, will not only miss the glories of <I>the Heavenlies</I> with +Christ, but will suffer persecution, and many of them death at the +hands of Anti-christ and his emissaries. (Author.) +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +DEATH OF THE "TWO WITNESSES." +</H3> + + +<P> +Apleon had been on the Temple mount for two hours. Part of that time +he had been in the Temple itself, in and out of which there passed +continually, streams of people, all curious to see the wonderful image +of Apleon, the image that had spoken, and that had slain "unbelievers." +</P> + +<P> +Apleon had watched the ever-moving crowds of dupes, and noticed how +every one of them bowed, or prostrated themselves before his image. He +noticed, too, whenever his own presence had been realized, that the +worshippers, while bowing <I>before</I> the image faced him, Apleon, so that +they really gave <I>him</I> the worship. +</P> + +<P> +In spite of all that Romanists, and others of a similar cult, may say, +the <I>worship</I> of an image or of a statue, means the worship of the +person imaged or sculptured—this is the very essence of all +image-worship. The great Chrysostom, in one of his records of his +time, says: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>When the images of the Emperor are sent down and brought into a city, +its rulers and multitude go out to meet them with carefulness and +reverence, not honouring the tablet or the representation moulded in +wax, but the standing of the Emperor.</I>" +</P> + +<P> +Athanasius wrote: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>He who worshippeth the image, in it worshippeth the emperor; for the +image is his form and likeness.</I>" +</P> + +<P> +And the worship, in the Jerusalem Temple, of the <I>image</I> of Apleon, +("The Beast") was the worship of the man himself. +</P> + +<P> +There is a very curious word in Habakkuk ii. 9, "<I>Woe to him that saith +to the wood, 'Awake!' to the dumb stone, "Arise, it shall teach.</I>" +Apleon, the Anti-christ actually qualifies himself for that "woe" of +God's. +</P> + +<P> +A notice had been promulgated that in the "Broadway"—the wide, open +square from which the great marble road to the Temple opened +out,—throughout the whole day, the new "Covenant" brands would be +affixed. +</P> + +<P> +The "Covenant" sign, had for three years and a half been mostly worn +(as we have seen) in the form of a ring on the right hand, or as a +pendant frontlet upon the forehead. Some few million enthusiasts, it +is true, had worn it <I>branded</I> on the flesh of the forehead, but this +had not been universal. +</P> + +<P> +Now it had been decreed by Apleon, and endorsed by his second, the +false Prophet, that the wearing of a <I>detatchable</I> "Sign," be no longer +permissable, that <I>all must be branded—or die</I>. +</P> + +<P> +Brands, in several sizes, had been prepared, which, when pressed +against the forehead, and worked by a spring-lever, left the damnable +mark upon the skin in deep, rich purple characters. The surface of the +branding instrument was peculiarly soft and yielding, so that when, by +the automatic inking, the mark was made, there was never an imperfect +sign, but every character was truly formed. The ink used, claimed to +be absolutely indelible, and those who had tried it, more than two +years before, had found no break in any single line or curve if either +of the characters. +</P> + +<P> +For two hours, a hundred branders had been at work at their truly +hellish task, and if the <I>donning</I> of the badges, three and a half +years before had been in a veritable <I>holiday</I> spirit, the acceptance +of the brand, now, was with a blend of rapturous joy, and of actual +worship. +</P> + +<P> +With the infernal cunning which has ever characterized Satan's efforts +to thwart God and His Christ, he has counterfeited every rite, every +sacrament of Christ's Church. Hence Apleon, Satan's tool, is very keen +upon this matter of a baptismal sign. He makes a sacrament of it (i. +e. an oath or covenant of fidelity.) To show their allegiance to his +infernal lordship, Anti-christ's subjects must now wear his brand so +that it can never be erased or removed, and his chaplain ("The False +Prophet") "<I>causeth all, the small and the great, and the rich and the +poor, and the free and the bond, to receive</I>"—literal translation—"<I>a +stamp or brand, on their right hand, or on their forehead</I>." +</P> + +<P> +The preaching of the cross, of Jesus Christ as the World's Redeemer, +the putting away of sin, and the gift of eternal life by faith in God's +word of grace, the baptism into the name of Christ, had, for several +decades, been growingly scouted as "foolishness." "An obsolete +doctrine," all that was voted. "Men are far too intelligent to be +bound by such a Bible creed as that. New times need new doctrines," +etc., etc. +</P> + +<P> +The twenty years immediately preceding the manifestation of the "Man of +Sin," had been characterized by such utterances, and many others +infinitely more impious, blasphemous, and senseless. "<I>But after the +world by its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through +the foolishness of the thing preached, to save them that believe</I> … +Because THE FOOLISHNESS OF GOD is WISER THAN MEN." But when +Anti-christ shall promulgate his devil-doctrines, senseless, +idolatrous, humiliating, the bulk of men of every grade and class, will +suffer themselves to be branded like cattle in a round-up. Believing +"the lie," deluded by that universal lie, they will have no choice, +save to be branded, or to die. And to yield themselves to the infernal +brand will mean to be cut off for ever from God. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>If any man worship the Beast and his image, and receive his mark in +his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the +wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His +indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the +presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the +smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they have no +rest day or night, who worship the Beast and his image</I>, AND WHOSOEVER +RECEIVETH THE MARK OF HIS NAME." (Rev. xiv. 9-11.) +</P> + +<P> +Simultaneous with the beginning of the branding, the two witnesses had +taken up a position close by the branders, and had persistently +witnessed to the near coming of the Lord in judgment upon those who +wore the Mark of the Beast, while, at the same time, they denounced +Apleon as the Anti-christ. +</P> + +<P> +Over and over again during their testimony, attempts had been made to +silence them, every conceivable death-attack had been made upon +them—but nothing harmed them. No weapon formed against them could +prosper, until their "witness" was completed. And every one who had +assisted in any form, in attacking them, had died in the act. +</P> + +<P> +Now, Apleon, attended by the ten kings, who had been summoned to +Jerusalem, rode down from the Temple. At the branding station, the ten +kings dismounted, and each received the foul mark on the forehead. +</P> + +<P> +As the last of them received the brand, a startled wondering cry burst +from some of the multitude who thronged "The Broadway," and following +the many pointing fingers of the startled ones, every one saw how that +purple, lambent flames played about Apleon's forehead in the form of +the "Covenant" sign. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>He doeth great wonders in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that +dwell on the earth by means of these miracles.</I>" Rev. xiii. 12, 14. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.</I>" +Rev. xiii. 7. "<I>He shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt +himself, and magnify himself above every God.</I>" +</P> + +<P> +Acclaiming him as very God, the people suddenly prostrated themselves +in worship before the great deceiver. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly the voices of the two witnesses were heard. Both voices were +clear and distinct, yet neither clashed with the other, even though +each voice used separate terms. They stood about a hundred yards apart +from each other. +</P> + +<P> +Everyone rose to their feet, every eye was fixed upon the two grand, +fearless faces, as they thundered forth their words of warning of +judgment, of entreaty. Then suddenly they turned their gaze and their +speech upon Apleon himself. +</P> + +<P> +As the "Te Deum" sprang spontaneously from the lips of Ambrose and +Augustine, each saint voicing an alternate stanza, so now the two +witnesses hurled their fulminations against the Man of Sin: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Thou heart of all foulness and deceiveableness, with the breath of +His lips shall the Christ slay thee.</I>" Isa. xi. 4. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Thou marked one, the Lord shall consume thee with the spirit of His +mouth, and shall destroy thee with the brightness of His coming.</I>" 2 +Thess. ii. 8. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>O thou enemy! Thy destructions shall soon come to a perpetual end.</I>" +Ps. lx. 6. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>It shall come to pass in that day</I> (when Jehovah shall deliver His +people out of thy hands) <I>saith the Lord of Hosts, that I will break +thy yoke</I> (Apleon Emperor, Man of Sin, Anti-christ) <I>from off the +'peoples' neck.</I>" Jer. xxx 8. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Judgment shall sit, and Christ shall take away thy kingdom, to +consume and to destroy it unto the end.</I>" Dan. vii. 26. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Tophet is ordained of old, yea for thee, thou Man of Sin, it is +prepared: God hath made it deep, and large; the pile thereof is fire +and much wood: the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth +kindle it.</I>" Isa. xxx. 33. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>And thou shall be taken, and with thee The False Prophet, thy +co-adjutor, he whom thou hast deputed to work miracles before thee, and +in thy foul name, and with all those whom thou and thy False Prophet +have deceived, who have received thy brand on them, and who have +worshipped thine image.—These all, you, your prophet, and your dupes, +shall be cast into a lake of fire burning with brimstone</I>". Rev. xiii. +2, 3. Rev. xix. 20. +</P> + +<P> +Low and mocking, a laugh broke from Apleon, upon whose brow there still +played that lambent flame. The laugh was caught up by the multitude, +until one far-reaching volume of mocking, derisive laughter went +rolling out-and-away from The Broadway, to Gareth and Goab, and every +other suburb of the city, and back again. +</P> + +<P> +As the last echo of the laughter died away, Apleon called, to his +Viceroy: +</P> + +<P> +"Where is the axe and the block?" +</P> + +<P> +"Here, Sire!" +</P> + +<P> +A score of men bearing broad, gleaming axes, with thrice a score of +others, bearing, each three, a blood-red enamelled block, came forward +into the centre of the square. +</P> + +<P> +"Take those two drivelling prophets, and behead them!" cried Apleon. +</P> + +<P> +A thousand hands were stretched towards the witnesses. This time they +were readily taken. Their bodies were dragged to the blocks, and with +one stroke to each, they were beheaded. +</P> + +<P> +With a shout of triumph, that spread far and wide, the people acclaimed +Apleon as "God Almighty." +</P> + +<P> +"Let no man touch that carrion, to bury it!" +</P> + +<P> +Was the order of Apleon. +</P> + +<P> +That was to be doubly his hour of triumph. All arrangements had been +made for his official coronation. An immense awning of purple and gold +silk, was stretched over the whole of "The Broadway." +</P> + +<P> +The time occupied in stretching the whole thing was not more than sixty +seconds. A throne of Ivory, Pearl, and gold was set in the centre of +the pavement, beneath the awning. Everything was done with the +rapidity of a stage-setting in a theatre—<I>it was all very theatrical</I>! +</P> + +<P> +A score of trumpeters executed a wonderful fanfare, then, amid more +pomp than the world had ever yet seen, a crown, of fabulous value and +of extraordinary magnificence, was set upon the head of Apleon, who +occupied the throne, each of the ten kings actually touching, and +helping to set the crown upon his head. +</P> + +<P> +Hitherto, Apleon, though upheld by the ten kings and governments, had, +after all, been an un-crowned Dictator. Now, in the hour of his +seeming triumph over "The Two Witnesses," he was crowned Roman Emperor +of the ten-kingdomed confederacy. +</P> + +<P> +When the coronation ceremony was finally completed, and Apleon, mounted +on his black horse, and surrounded by the ten kings, started to ride +back to the Palace, he ordered messages to be flashed to all the cities +of the world, announcing three days of rejoicing over the slaying of +the Witnesses, and also the announcement of his own coronation. +</P> + +<P> +The rejoicings in Jerusalem, Babylon, and elsewhere, over the death of +"The Witnesses" was wilder than the "Mafficking" [Transcriber's note: +Mafeking?] in England of the Boer war days. The two Witnesses had been +a source of torment and fear upon all peoples (save those who clove to +God) and now that their headless bodies lay stark and dead on the +marble pave of "The Broadway," the people "<I>rejoiced upon them, made +merry, and sent gifts one to another</I>." Rev. xi. 10. +</P> + +<P> +The outrage upon decency, sanitation, and even common humanity, in +suffering the two bodies to remain unburied, lasted three days and a +half. Three days and a half was long enough period for the +representatives of every nation, gathered in the city and +neighbourhood, to be perfectly assured that they were dead. "<I>And +certain ones from among the peoples and the tribes and tongues and +nations behold their corpses three days and a half, and suffer not +their corpses to be put in sepulchre</I>." Rev. xi. 9. +</P> + +<P> +When Edward the 7th of Britain, lay dead in the great Abbey of the +Empire, it was counted high honour to be part of the <I>silent</I> guard +over the coffin. +</P> + +<P> +And men almost fought for the privilege to stand guard over the +headless forms of the Two Witnesses lying on that marble pave in +Jerusalem: "<I>It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem</I>." +Luke xiii. 33. +</P> + +<P> +But <I>these</I> death-guards were not silent. They laugh scornfully, +derisively, and crack jokes upon the now silenced testimony of the Two +Witnesses. Caricatures, and comic cuts upon their lives, their death, +their oft-repeated warnings, were printed and sold in the streets of +the city. +</P> + +<P> +It was the evening of the fourth day after the setting up of the image +in the Temple, and three and a half days since the Witnesses were +slain. A last, a final public function before the dispersal of the +kings, and others specially gathered for the coronation, and other +ceremonies, had been arranged for 6 o'clock in "The Broadway." +</P> + +<P> +Apleon, and the other kings had gathered. The trumpeters had blown one +blast upon their silver instruments, when a cry of horror burst from +the gathered multitudes. For the bodies of the Two Witnesses suddenly +stood upon their feet. +</P> + +<P> +They were facing Apleon, as they stood up. Their eyes met his +startled, fearsome gaze. His face was deathly pale. A tomb-like hush +of awe and fear was upon the gathered peoples. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, overhead, <I>three</I> deep notes, like thunder rolled through +space. The multitude thought it was thunder, the resurrected Witnesses +knew it for the voice of their Lord, crying "<I>Come up hither!</I>" +</P> + +<P> +And instantly their bodies rose in the sight of all the people. No +awning was spread over the square, this evening, and every eye beheld +the ascent of the resurrected saints, a wondrous cloud seeming to +upbear them upon its billowy whiteness. +</P> + +<P> +An overwhelming fear fell upon everyone. The arranged kingly function +was suspended. Yet still the people remained. It was as though they +were spell-bound. +</P> + +<P> +And while everyone waited, wondering and fearing, a low, deep rumbling +was heard beneath their feet. Then the earth trembled, and rocked. +</P> + +<P> +For one long, shuddering instant every voice was hushed, horror got +hold of the people. Then in a moment yells and shrieks of terror +escaped men and women alike. From the roofs of the houses there came +piteous cries for help, for, with the trembling of the earth, the +houses rocked like children's houses of cards. +</P> + +<P> +It grew dark, and bewildered by the sudden awfulness of the whole +situation, and maddened by the hopelessness born of the sense of +insecurity of even the foot of ground upon which each stood, the mob +rushed blindly hither and thither. Panic, in its most hideous form got +hold of them. In their blind, unseeing rushes they collided with each +other, and a score of fierce passions leaped to life within them, chief +of which was a lust for war. Madly, savagely, senselessly, neither +knowing or caring with whom they fought, they stabbed and shot, and +clawed and scratched, and boxed and wrestled with each other. +</P> + +<P> +The many horses stampeded, and beat down hundreds of the people beneath +their iron hoofs. +</P> + +<P> +The darkness deepened, it grew sooty, inky. The horrors pressed upon +the people, women and children, and even men grovelled on their faces +in the dust, clutching and clawing at the ground. +</P> + +<P> +Thunder in the heavens, and thunder under the earth deafened and +terrified every soul. Fierce, wide, jagged ribbons of awful flame came +out of the blackened heavens. Scores of thunderbolts, red and flaming, +leaped out of the blackness of cloud above, and, hissing as they came, +wrought awful death among the mobs upon which they descended. The +smell of burning flesh filled the air, making a new horror. +</P> + +<P> +The thunder and rumble beneath the earth increased. The whole surface +of the city heaved like the swell of a storm-tossed sea. Chasms, +fissures, gulfs yawned every-where, and thousands of people toppled +into the opened earth. Suddenly, the whole heavens were filled with an +appalling succession of frightful crashings; it was as though hundreds +of millions of powerful rockets were exploding in successive volleys of +millions each. Beneath the earth, thunders and crashings went on at +the same time. Then, in every direction, the earth fissured and gaped +and yawned wider than ever, and with blood-curdling roarings and +crashings, a whole tenth part of the city tottered and fell into the +yawning gulfs, with thousands upon thousands of people. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly, the rumble of falling buildings, and the hideous thunders below +and aloft died away, and a strange, awesome hush fell upon the city. +Slowly, too, the darkness melted, leaving the sky blood-red. The blood +gradually merged into pink towards the centre of the dome, the pink +became gold, then every living eye in the city and suburbs became +centred upon that golden centre, and all saw the forms of the TWO +WITNESSES, with a pavement of dazzling white cumulus beneath their +sandalled feet. +</P> + +<P> +The wondrous scene was as the very voice of God to the watching +multitudes, if they could but have understood, the voice testifying to +the power and truth of God and His word. +</P> + +<P> +It was the <I>new</I>, the fashionable part of the city that had suffered in +the earthquake and its attendant horrors—the part of the city where +"Satan's seat was," chiefly. +</P> + +<P> +With the engulphing of the most fashionable part of the city, there was +a consequent heavy toll of human life. Seven thousand men of name, of +notable rank, perished in the earthquake. +</P> + +<P> +When the last building had tottered into the yawning chasms of the +riven earth, and the souls of the late deriders of God had toppled into +their hell; when the clouds of dust had cleared away; when no further +earth-rumble came, then with a gasp of terror the remainder of the +gathered thousands of people "<I>Gave glory to God</I>." +</P> + +<P> +There was no worship; no sorrow for their sin; no repentance; not even +any remorse; certainly no conversions of the whole mass, any more than +were of Jaunes and Jambres, when they declared, of the Miracles of +Moses and Aaron, "<I>This is the finger of God</I>." +</P> + +<P> +Some there were, who had been near to yielding to the pleadings of the +Two Witnesses, who were wholly won to God in this hour, but the vast +mass of the people continued to worship the Beast. Their cry to God +had been but a terror-stricken cry. +</P> + +<P> +By the morning the gathered masses had wholly recovered themselves, and +the suspended public function was carried out. One part of this +function was the partition of Palestine among certain rulers, +millionaires, and others. "<I>He</I> (Anti-christ) <I>shall divide the land +for gain</I>." Dan. xi. 39. +</P> + +<P> +With the horror and fear of the survivors of this earthquake, the +"<I>Second Woe" was finished, "and behold the third woe cometh quickly</I>." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +FLIGHT! PURSUIT! +</H3> + + +<P> +Throughout the latter half of the "Day of Blasphemy," when the +"Abomination of Desolation," had been set up in the Temple of +Jerusalem, the exodus of fearsome, fleeing people went on. With nearly +three million visitors, from every land, the more or less rapid +departure of a hundred thousand or more, was not noticed. In fact, +more than that number of persons might be expected to leave every +twenty-four hours—the ordinary exit of visitors after the special +visit. +</P> + +<P> +But, presently, it was reported to Apleon, that a mighty exodus of Jews +and Gentiles, few of whom wore the "Brand of the Covenant," had taken +place, and was still taking place. He had spies everywhere. +</P> + +<P> +The whole of Jewish population, with those on visit to the city for +this special occasion, were either <I>for</I> the Anti-christ or <I>against</I> +him, those against him were but a very small minority. +</P> + +<P> +The deluded, idolatrous Jews will hate and betray their nearest and +dearest relations and friends, as Micah prophesied that they would: +"<I>Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide; keep the +doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom</I>." Micah vii. 5. +<I>And endorsing this, Jesus said: "They shall deliver you up to be +afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all, for my +name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one +another, and, shall hate one another</I>." Matt. xxiv. +</P> + +<P> +With father, mother, brother, lover, sister, friend all acting as +betrayers of their own kith and kin, Apleon soon learned much that he +needed to know as to the fugitives. He discovered that the many +thousand fleeing Jews had, first, at least, travelled southwards, and +he instructed his emissaries to ascertain the objective point of these +fleeing Jews. He left the whole thing in the hands of his chaplain, +"The False Prophet," who had the essence of all the subtlety of Hell in +his composition, with all the devilish ingeniousness of cruelty of +every Inquisitor who had ever practised in past days. A "lamb" in +seeming, he was a "dragon in actual nature." Rev. xiii. 11. +</P> + +<P> +Spies had informed him that Cohen, the first high-priest, was +undoubtedly the leader of the fugitives, but that his wife and daughter +had refused to accompany him. "They are wholly with our World-Lord, +Apleon," one of the spies had said. +</P> + +<P> +"Will Cohen, think you," asked the chaplain, "steal back under cover of +one of the dark nights and try to induce his wife to join him?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," laughed the spy. "He will think himself well rid of her. She +has been the plague of his life. Every drop of her blood is as sharp +as the juice of a lime. Her lips distil wormwood. And vinegar is a +cloying sweetness compared to her kindest thought or utterance, and——" +</P> + +<P> +"But the daughter," interrupted the chaplain, sharply, "What of her? +Is she a replica of her mother?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit, not a bit of it!" And the eyes of the betrayer flashed +with a new light. "Miriam is as beautiful as a houri, as fair as the +light of a sun-lit day after a black night of tempest, and as sweet in +disposition as Rachel, the favoured of our father Jacob." +</P> + +<P> +"If she is all this, why is she unwed? or perhaps she loves, and +perhaps we could make her a tool of her lover, and thus find out where +her father has led those dogs of fugitives." +</P> + +<P> +There was a look of hate and malice in the eyes of the betrayer, as he +answered: "Yes, she loves, loves as her very life, but the man she +loves is an even greater zealot than her father, and he has gone with +Cohen—curse him! may he never more be seen by Miriam!" +</P> + +<P> +The chaplain laughed maliciously: "Oh! the wind blows in that quarter, +eh? You love the fair Miriam, but another has cut you out!" +</P> + +<P> +The betrayer was inclined to be surly, but the chaplain knew how to +speak like the "<I>lamb</I>," and quickly mollified the young Hebrew. Then, +together, they plotted and conferred, their plotting based on the +supposition that young Isaac Wolferstein, the fugitive lover of Miriam +would return, secretly, to induce Miriam to share the loyal-to-Jehovah +flight of himself and her father. +</P> + +<BR> +<HR WIDTH="60%" ALIGN="center"> +<BR> + +<P> +The vineyard of Cohen was an eighth of a mile from his villa, and the +villa was a mile and a half from the Jaffa Gate of the city. Miriam +had wandered out as far as the vineyard, for her heart was too sore to +sleep that night. She made her way to the arbour, where so often Isaac +and she had held sweet and tender intercourse. During the last twelve +hours, she had turned unto God and unto the Messiah who was so soon to +come to deliver His people and to set up His kingdom. +</P> + +<P> +She had gazed upon the resurrected Two Witnesses, as they had appeared, +glorified, in the Heavens, after that awful earthquake. And, recalling +the words of their preaching, and all that her lover and father had +urged upon her before they reluctantly left her, to flee the city, she +had been suddenly bowed before God, in penitence and prayer. +</P> + +<P> +"If only Isaac would come back for me," she moaned, as she dropped +wearily upon the seat of the arbour. +</P> + +<P> +"He has come back, Mirry, darling!" +</P> + +<P> +At the first sound of the voice that spoke, she leaped to her feet, +crying: "Isaac! Isaac! Forgive me, dear, that I——" +</P> + +<P> +She got no further, his arms enclosed her fair form, his hot lips gave +and received love's pure caress, and when at last he spoke again, it +was to say: "God has given us again each other, darling, and nothing +but death must ever part us again." +</P> + +<P> +The hours passed and to them they seemed but as minutes. He had much +to tell of the flight of the Believers, as he termed them, and had many +words of message from her father. +</P> + +<P> +The morning comes early in Palestine. At the first blush of dawn they +stole out of the vineyard, to where his motor waited. They had eyes +only for each other, as, hand in hand, they moved through the morning +twilight. Then, with a bewildering suddenness, from the off-side of +the motor, a dozen crouching men sprang out. +</P> + +<P> +Five minutes later, amid the mocking, jeering laughter of their +captors, they were being taken to the city—only not together. Miriam +was forced to ride <I>in</I> the car seated by the side of their betrayer, +the man whom she hated, and whose love-overtures she had scorned and +repulsed. Her wrists and her ankles were bound with cords, and she had +been lifted into the car, bodily, by the man of her hate. To humble +her and to shame her, the cur had kissed her again and again before her +captive lover, then with a carefully judged malice, he had seated her, +by his side, on the seat that <I>faced</I> the rear of the car, so that her +captive-lover would be further tormented by the sight of her, compelled +to accept his, his rival's, caresses. +</P> + +<P> +Isaac Wolferstein was cruelly bound, fastened to the rear of the car, +and made to stumble over the road, and often to be dragged, when the +pace of the car carried him off his feet. Once or twice he almost +fainted, for the soles of his feet were skinned—his captors had +purposely divested him of his shoes and socks. The ants found out the +bare, bleeding feet and added torment to his pain. +</P> + +<P> +The city was astir as the car entered. The news was shouted from the +car, that one of the accursed, who defied "The Lord, Apleon," had been +captured, and was to be tortured in the Broadway. +</P> + +<BR> +<HR WIDTH="60%" ALIGN="center"> +<BR> + +<P> +The great open space was crowded with people. As, of old, the Roman +populace gathered in holiday, theatre mood to see the Christians +tortured and slain, so had this great concourse gathered about the +beautiful Miriam, and her handsome lover Isaac Wolferstein. +</P> + +<P> +One of the Kiosks, from which "Covenant" brands were worked, was +opened, and the spring instrument was brought out. Apleon's chaplain +was there, and in a voice heard clearly by everyone at the farthest +remove from him, he asked: +</P> + +<P> +"Isaac Wolferstein, will you worship "The Lord Apleon?" +</P> + +<P> +Wolferstein was hoarse with pain and thirst, but lifting his head +proudly, he looked the "<I>False Prophet</I>" full in the eyes, as he cried +fearlessly: +</P> + +<P> +"Never! Apleon, is a demon, and of his father Beelzebub!" +</P> + +<P> +"Silence, you beast!" yelled his tormenter, and he struck him across +the lips with the stick he carried. Then he turned towards the +beautiful Jewess, saying: +</P> + +<P> +"Miriam Cohen. Will you worship our Lord Apleon, and wear his brand?" +</P> + +<P> +"Never!" she cried. +</P> + +<P> +He spat at her, as he said, "Well, we shall see!" +</P> + +<P> +He turned to Wolferstein again, saying: "Where has Cohen, the +ex-priest, and that herd of disloyal pigs gone?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will not tell you!" replied the captive, proudly. +</P> + +<P> +"You defy me, so be it. Aha, aha!" The "<I>False Prophet</I>" laughed +mockingly. Turning to some of the Apleon guards who were massed on two +sides of the Broadway, he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Strip him! and lash him——." He lifted his eyes to the sun, +calculated how it would travel, then, with a fiendish smile, he +indicated one of the pillars of the colonnade, "lash him there were the +sun will reach him." +</P> + +<P> +They tore the clothes from the fine form of the loyal young Jew. Then, +when he was absolutely nude, they fastened him to the pillar. +</P> + +<P> +A honey-seller stood in the crowd. An officer of the guards spied the +man, and called him out. "Take a handful of that fellow's honey," he +ordered one of his men, "and lightly smear that foul Jew's back and +shoulders, his face and ears too. Don't put it on thickly, but as +light as you can, that the insects may find his flesh <I>through</I> the +honey." +</P> + +<P> +The officer's bidding was done. Then began as hideous a martyrdom for +Isaac Wolferstein, as had ever come to a soul loyal to God. The flies, +ants, and a score of other stinging things found him out. His +honey-smeared flesh was black with them. +</P> + +<P> +In his agony and torture he turned his eyes upon Miriam. "My darling!" +he cried, as well as his dried leather tongue and throat would let him. +"God will pardon you, surely, if you bend to circumstances, and wear +the foul sign!" +</P> + +<P> +"But I should never forgive myself, Isaac," she called. "And how could +I meet Jehovah's searching eye, if I failed Him now. Courage, courage +dear one!" +</P> + +<P> +She knew, as we know, that Wolferstein meant no disloyalty to his God, +but that he was momentarily beside himself with the agony of his +torture and his love for her. +</P> + +<P> +With a very suave, mocking smile, "<I>The False Prophet</I>" spoke across +the six yards that separated him from Miriam, saying: +</P> + +<P> +"Tell us where your father and that foul herd that went with him, are +located." +</P> + +<P> +"I will not, not even if you torture me to death," she cried. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait until your torture begins, before you brag!" this to Miriam. +Then turning to some of the soldiers, he cried: "Strip her, don't leave +a rag upon her, and treat her from top to toe with that smearing of +honey!" +</P> + +<P> +Wolferstein shut his teeth sharply with the agony that swept over him +at this order. In that moment he was unmindful of his own torture, in +his dread contemplation of his loved one's shaming and torment. He +shut his eyes that he might not see all that followed. +</P> + +<P> +The brutal soldiery took a fiendish delight in fulfilling the order +given them. They literally rent the clothes off the beautiful girl in +strips and ribbons. Then when she stood absolutely nude before them, +they smeared the beautiful form with the honey. +</P> + +<P> +"Lash her to that pillar," cried Apleon's hellish deputy. He indicated +a pillar, adding: "While they will both get the full benefit of the +sun, they can see each other—lovers are never really happy out of +sight of each other!" +</P> + +<P> +There was a roar of laughter at this thrust. +</P> + +<P> +We cannot—there is no need to detail all their sufferings. In less +than two hours both were crazed with the blistering sun, and the +ravening of the foul and biting insects. +</P> + +<P> +Once, just before the crazing robbed him of coherent thought, the mind +of Wolferstein travelled to the Psalm he knew so well from his +childhood's days, and his black backed lips feebly murmured: +</P> + +<P> +"Be not far from me, O God, for there is none to help me. Many bulls +of Bashan have compassed me. I am poured out like water, my heart is +like wax, it is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a +potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; I am brought into the dust +of death; for dogs have compassed me; the assembly of the wicked have +enclosed me. Be not Thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste +Thou to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the +power of the dog." +</P> + +<P> +The lovers were alike, both past speech a moment later, and it looked +as though they would soon be past consciousness. Not a single eye, +apparently, in all that vast crowd, had cast a glance of pity upon +them, no voice had been raised in sympathetic pleading for them. +Devilism was the heart of all things, and it changed men and women into +veritable demons. Their persecutors had been as fiends in their +torturing, and the onlookers enjoyed the scene as of some fine sport. +</P> + +<P> +And now it looked as though both were dying. Both were losing +consciousness. The half-closed eyes were blood-shot; the lips were +baked black, and hideously swollen; their mouths were open; and where +the suffused blood—from the fierce knottings of the cords that bound +them—showed blue and purple, the veins were swollen to the bursting +point. +</P> + +<P> +"The block and the axe!" commanded "<I>The False Prophet.</I>" The grim +things were brought. +</P> + +<P> +"Loose the carrion!" came the next command. +</P> + +<P> +A dozen hands were busy in a moment with the knotted cords. Miriam was +the first to be fully released. Her eyes were closed; her breaths were +heavy, slow throbs; her beautiful form bent and swayed; and the soldier +who held her had to bear all her weight. He carried her to the block; +then, waiting, glanced for instructions to where the officer of the +guards, and "<I>The False Prophet</I>" stood. +</P> + +<P> +An executioner, toying with his axe, stood by the side of the block. +</P> + +<P> +"Off with it!" called "<I>The False Prophet</I>," laughingly. +</P> + +<P> +The soldier lifted the nude, insensible form of the beautiful girl so +that her neck rested in the hollow of the block. He held her in +position. The axe fell. The head rolled to the stone pave. A woman +close by, caught the head by the hair, twisted her fingers well into +the beautiful black swathes, and swinging the gory thing around her +head, let it fly from her hand, shouting, as it hurled through the air. +</P> + +<P> +"A kick-off, for the <I>first</I> team!" +</P> + +<P> +The mob, among whom the head fell, began to play football with it. A +moment later, the head of Isaac Wolferstein rolled to the pavement, and +a second woman caught that and hurled it over the heads of the people +in the opposite direction to that in which Miriam's head had gone. +</P> + +<P> +"A kick-off," shouted the hurler of the head, "for the <I>second</I> team." +[1] +</P> + +<BR> +<HR WIDTH="60%" ALIGN="center"> +<BR> + +<P> +This effort to trace Cohen and the fugitives had failed, but the +knowledge soon came in, in four or five different ways. One of the +wireless messages had brought a clue. Some traders brought in a fuller +clue, and rapidly other news came to hand. +</P> + +<P> +It soon became perfectly clear that there existed some kind of evident +understanding between the various fleeing crowds, and that their first +place of united meeting was to be one of the agricultural colonies near +to the old Kadesh-Barnea. +</P> + +<P> +By this time the fugitives had had four good days start. Apleon +ordered an enormous body of troops to go in pursuit, and to slay or +capture the fugitives—capture, by preference, that they might be +publicly tortured and beheaded. +</P> + +<P> +Mad with the lust for blood, and that fouler lust of Religious revenge, +the pursuing host sped southwards. The wondrous new motor-trains, that +would career over hillocks easier than a thoroughbred hunter gallops +over a turfy down, carried the expedition. There were a hundred trains +of thirty cars each, besides a thousand or more single Motor-Cars, +carrying from twelve to twenty persons. Worked on the then latest +principle,—ether-driven—the cars and trains swept onward at the rate +of a hundred miles an hour. Over head, travelling at the same rate, +was a fleet of aerial war-ships, armed with infernal torpedoes, that if +dropped into any town or community, would wipe out every living soul, +and destroy the stoutest city, in a few minutes. +</P> + +<P> +It looked as though the devoted band of Jews and Gentiles who had fled +south were doomed. +</P> + +<P> +Wild, exultant shouts of ironical laughter and unholy glee burst from +the land and aerial pursuers, as they came within a moment or two (at +their rate of travelling) of the fugitives. +</P> + +<P> +The latter had seen them, heard them, and, as a body, were bowed in +prayer for——. They scarcely knew what to ask, for deliverance or for +fortitude, so that the essence of their prayer was "<I>undertake for us, +Lord!</I>" +</P> + +<P> +The sky lowered over their heads. They thought it was the aerial fleet +hiding the sun—but the winged warriors were not <I>quite</I> come up over +their place of gathering. +</P> + +<P> +The prostrate refugees remained, to a man, upon their faces. Souls in +direct dealing with God have no curiosity as to outside events. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, like the hiss of ten thousand times ten thousand snakes, a +rushing sibilation passed through the momentarily darkened air. At the +same instant the earth trembled, and there was an awful, thunderous +rumbling in the nether world. +</P> + +<P> +Simultaneous with both of these phenomena there came yells and screams, +then,—anon—silence. +</P> + +<P> +The mass of refugees raised themselves, and stood silent with awe and +thankfulness. Sheets of flame had rushed out of the heavens, +overwhelmed the aerial fleet of vengeful pursuers, fired the vessels, +and hurled men and machines downwards into a mighty gulf. For the +trembling, and thundering of the earth had been the result and +accompaniments of a terrible earth-quake, that now swallowed up the +whole pursuing host—land and aerial, alike. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment or two no sound came from the mighty crowd of +miraculously-delivered refugees. Then, suddenly, one of the late +priests of the Temple, a chorister-priest, burst into song: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously. The Lord is my +strength and my song, and He is become my salvation: He is my +God … My father's God, and I will exalt Him. The Lord is a Man +of war: the Lord is His name. Our enemy's chariots and his host hath +He cast into the earth … Thy right hand, O Lord, is become +glorious in power: Thy right hand, O Lord, dashed in pieces the enemy. +And in the greatness of Thine excellency Thou hast overthrown them that +rose up against Thee; Thou sentest forth Thy wrath, which consumed +them.</I>" +</P> + +<P> +Almost in the instant of the starting of the song, thousands of Jews, +(and Gentiles, as well) had recognized the Red Sea Triumph Song, and +had joined the voice of the leader. What a swell of triumph it was! +On, on they sang: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>The enemy said: I will pursue, I will overtake; my lust shall be +satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, and my hand shall destroy +them. Thou didst blow with Thy wind, and they were destroyed.</I> +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the Gods! Who is like Thee, +glorious in Holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Thou +stretchedst out Thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. Thou in Thy +mercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed: Thou hast +guided them in Thy strength. The people shall hear, and be afraid: +sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestine. Fear and dread +shall fall upon them: by the greatness of Thine arm they shall be as +still as a stone; till Thy people, O Lord, till the people pass over, +whom Thou hast purchased.</I> +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine +inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made, in the +Sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established. The Lord shall +reign for ever and ever.</I>" +</P> + +<P> +Three times over, led by the impromptu priest-precentor, that grateful, +jubilant, delivered people sang the last sentence. +</P> + +<P> +Then, as their song of praise finished, the leaders took counsel +together as to what they should do next. It was the unanimous feeling, +and expressed opinion, that Apleon would send forth other expeditions +to destroy them, if he learned that they had escaped the fate of his +aerial and land pursuit. +</P> + +<P> +"I do not believe," cried Cohen, the chief spokesman among the Jews, +"that God Jehovah has permitted one of our pursuers to escape. God's +judgments, like His mercies, are full and complete. Will Apleon, the +Traitor to his covenant-word, ever know the fate of our pursuers? I +believe not, unless anyone of us here retrace his steps to Jerusalem to +tell him, and that would mean public torture and death to the +tale-bearer." +</P> + +<P> +He paused, and glanced around on the throng nearest to him, as he asked: +</P> + +<P> +"Does anyone present know anything in the Scriptures relating to this +present position, that will serve as a guide to our movements now?" +</P> + +<P> +A tall, fine-looking man responded by lifting his right arm. He was +asked to speak. He came forward and stood upon the hillock where Cohen +stood. Holding aloft a Bible, he cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Men and Brethren, of the stock of Israel, and Gentiles associated with +them. I was a Christian minister, so-called, in Australia, when the +'Rapture' took place. I was <I>left behind</I>, because, though I could +preach eloquently enough, and could keep my church filled to +over-flowing. I was not a converted man; I had been trained for the +church, as my only brother had been trained for the bar. I never +realized the need of conversion, my soul was filled with pride in my +gifts, hence I was left behind when Christ came for His own,—and, +among His own, thank God, were many 'Israelites indeed,' as well as +Gentiles. +</P> + +<P> +"Since my conversion, friends, (and though too late for the Rapture, +yet still the glorious event took place within forty-eight hours of the +Rapture) I have <I>studied</I> my Bible, to see what should happen. +Everything <I>has</I> happened according as the New Testament has laid it +down: The 'people of God,' the Jews, have built their Temple. They +made their seven-year covenant with Apleon. The Anti-christ, the +Scripture calls him. At the end of the three and a half years (<I>half</I> +of the covenant time) he orders the Sacrifice to cease in the Temple at +Jerusalem—and everybody here knows how <I>literally</I> all this has +happened. +</P> + +<P> +"He has set up his own image to be worshipped, as was foretold, and +God's ancient people, with those of us here who are Gentiles, have +fled. We are here, to-day, here at this moment, living out exactly +what the New Testament had all along prophesied would come to pass. In +that wonderful book, which deals with these times in which we are now +living,—Revelation twelve, it says, that the faithful Jews, and +others, '<I>were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly +into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, +and times, and half a time</I>, (three and a half years from now,) +friends, which period will complete the seven years of Apleon's +(Anti-christ's) reign. +</P> + +<P> +"Now listen again to that same prophesy, friends: '<I>And the Serpent</I> +(Apleon) <I>cast out of his mouth water as a flood, after</I> (the +fugitives, us who are here today) <I>that he might cause them to be +carried away of the flood. And the earth helped</I> (the fugitives) <I>and +the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon +cast out of his mouth.</I>' Has not every item of this been actually +fulfilled, has not God opened the earth and swallowed up the flood, and +delivered us? Then that wonderful prophecy goes on: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>And</I> (the fugitives) <I>fled into the wilderness, where they had a +place prepared of God, and where they should be fed for twelve hundred +and sixty days</I>, (three and a half years.) +</P> + +<P> +"I do not pose as a prophet, friends, but I cannot help thinking from +all I read, some of which I have quoted to you, that God's mind for us +is that we should make our way into the wilderness beyond here, where +God's people of old time went, after God had swallowed up Pharoah's +hosts, even as He has just swallowed up Apleon's hosts. For, did you +notice, in the word I quoted to you just now, it not only said '<I>the</I> +wilderness,' but '<I>her place</I>.' It was the wilderness yonder there——" +</P> + +<P> +He pointed Southwards with his finger. "In Sinai; where Moses fled +from the wrath of Pharoah; where Israel fled when pursued by the +Egyptians; where Elijah fled from bloody Jezebel, and where, again and +again, God's people have found shelter, so that God calls it '<I>her</I> +place.' It comes to me, as I speak thus, that since Apleon's attempt +to destroy us has failed, (whether he will learn that, or not, he will +know that his punitive expedition does not return to him) his rage will +be fixed against all, in every part of the world, who will not Worship +him, and his image. So that the persecuted ones, in each land, against +whom his rage shall blaze, will probably flee to some wilderness in +their own land, while thousands of those who cannot flee will meet +martyrdom. +</P> + +<P> +"But wheresoever the wilderness shall be, whether down there in Sinai, +or in that vast desert in my wonderful land of Australia, or in one or +other of America's deserts, or the desert of whatever land it may be. +God will, I believe, miraculously feed, as He miraculously fed the +fugitive millions of Israel with manna, and fed Elijah with food from +Heaven by ravens. He could send 'manna' again, or any other food he +pleased. Or he could as readily feed if he pleased, with one meal to +last the three and a half years, as he could make his servants of old +'go in the strength of one meal for forty days.'" +</P> + +<P> +There was a little more in this strain, then there followed a kind of +general conference upon the matter in hand. The whole thing was too +serious to be delayed, or trifled with, and, eventually, it was agreed +to travel as swiftly as might be to the "Wilderness of Sinai," where +waiting upon God, they would hope to be directed in any future +movement, or be sustained by his wonder-working hand. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +[1] May God arouse readers of this scene to reflect that there must be +thousands living to-day, who will suffer thus hideously. Some, too, +who to-day are members of churches, others, children of Christian +Parents, many too, of the "Almost persuaded" among us. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MARTYRED. +</H3> + + +<P> +It was three months since the image of Apleon had been set up in the +"Holy" place in Jerusalem. Now all the world worshipped "The Beast," +for the images had been multiplied until every town and city and almost +every church, etc., had its own idol. +</P> + +<P> +The world had begun by "<I>Wondering after</I>" the Beast, it gave itself up +to error, despised the Truth, opened itself to receive the "<I>Strong +delusion</I>," the <I>Anti</I>-christ lie, so that the <I>worship</I> of the Beast +himself, then of his image, became but just consequent steps one after +the other. +</P> + +<P> +In Ancient Roman days its Emperors took divine titles, accepted homage, +worship, honor, all of which belonged, by right, to Deity alone. +Augustus had temples reared for the worship of himself, and, through +all the ages since, the remains of one of these temples (at Angora) has +remained, and inscribed upon a great stone lintel is the significant +word: "To THE GOD AUGUSTUS." Near by, in the same district, is a +kindred inscription, "To MARCUS AURELIUS … <I>by one most devoted +to his Godhead</I>." Nero and Domitian, fiends of blood and lust, were +styled, while they lived, "GOD," and "OUR GOD AND LORD." +</P> + +<P> +And Apleon fulfilled, to the minutest letter, all that was prophesied +of him as regarded his assumption of the divine. "<I>He will exalt +himself</I>," wrote Daniel "<I>and magnify himself above God. He will speak +marvellous things against the God of gods. He will not regard any God, +for he will magnify himself above all." "He opposeth and exalteth +himself above all that is called God," Paul said, "or that is +worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing +himself that he is God</I>." +</P> + +<P> +Whatever may be the cause of it, the fact remains that ever since the +Devil's lie in Eden was absorbed by, and ruined man, there has been a +proneness, a latent tendency to idolatry in the human race. And the +<I>manifestations</I> of this tendency have not been confined to peoples who +in their recent past have been won from idol worship. +</P> + +<P> +As late as the revolution days, in cultured, polished France, busts of +Marat and others, were greeted in the streets with bursts of +Hallelujahs, by the populace, and, even in the churches, all over +France, the people sang odes and Hallelujahs, and bowed themselves +before these busts, and at the mention of their names. Marat, +especially was treated as divine and "was universally deified," and +"divine" worship of his image was everywhere set up in churches. +</P> + +<P> +And the "worship of the Beast" came about easily, and as the natural +transition from the world's earlier adulation of the "Man of Sin." +</P> + +<P> +Millions upon millions of his image, in the form of charms, were worn +like the <I>eikons</I> of the Greek church. In the hour of death these +<I>eikons</I> (likenesses) "of the Beast," were held before the eyes of the +passing soul, as the crucifix was held, (in the old days before the +destruction of the older ecclesiastical systems,) before the eyes of +the dying Romanist and Ritualist. +</P> + +<P> +In that first three months of the <I>second</I> half of the seven years of +Anti-christ, much had changed in every way in the world. Under the +supreme dictation of Apleon changes commanded by him were effected +throughout the whole world, in one week, that would have occupied a +century in the old days of the nineteenth century, say. +</P> + +<P> +Babylon the Great, which had long since been rebuilt, had become the +world's commercial centre. It was exclusively a <I>commercial</I> city, +there was nothing ecclesiastical (Babylon <I>ecclesiastical</I>, the +religious system had been destroyed, when all <I>religious</I> head-ship had +been summed up in Apleon). +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing military, in the New Babylon, and though every +vileness in the form of entertainment was to be found in the great +city, all this was but the recreative side of the life of the +commercial people of the world's metropolis. +</P> + +<P> +Ever increasingly, during the 19th century, and the first decade of the +20th, commerce had been growing as clamorous and as exciting as the +"horse-leech," never satisfied, ever crying "give, give." It had +clamoured for a common currency, common weights and measures, common +code of terms, and a hundred and one kindred things. +</P> + +<P> +But it was in Babylon the Great, that the woman of Zechariah v. +1—Commerce—had found all she had been insisting for, through all the +past years,—and it all emanated from, and was centred in Apleon. And +it was all connected with worship. "<I>Covetousness, which is idolatry</I>." +</P> + +<P> +With the utter destruction of "Mystic Babylon," the vast religious +system, (whose destruction we have seen,) there came a mighty impulse +of commerce, and of consequent wealth to "Babylon the Great" the City. +</P> + +<P> +Apleon had made it his head-quarters. "<I>The kings of the earth lived +wantonly with her</I>." Her wharves and warehouses—built on that +wondrous Euphrates—were packed with "<I>merchandise of gold, silver, +precious stones, of pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, and all +rare woods, and all manner of vessels of ivory, brass, iron, marble, +cinnamon, odours, ointments, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, +wheat, beasts, sheep, horses, chariots, slaves—and souls of men</I>." +</P> + +<P> +Her vessels traded with the whole world. Her liners, travelling at 100 +miles per hour, were in easy touch of every land. Her pride in her +Maritime and commercial power, was overwhelming: "How much she hath +glorified herself, and lived deliciously.… For she saith in her +heart, I sit a queen!" Her aerial merchandise fleets, too, were +amazing! +</P> + +<BR> +<HR WIDTH="60%" ALIGN="center"> +<BR> + +<P> +The three months had brought great changes to the trio in whom we are +specially interested—Ralph Bastin, George Bullen, and Rose, his young +wife. +</P> + +<P> +Ralph, in quitting the editor's chair of the Courier, had received a +handsome <I>doucier</I>, from Sir Archibald Carlyon, and this, at his +special request, had been paid to him in the new paper currency of the +time—there was a world-common currency, under the Apleon regime, as +there was also a world-common code, weights and measures, etc. +</P> + +<P> +He had also contrived to turn his savings into the paper currency. +George Bullen had done the same, though in the case of each of them it +had not been easy work, for both were marked men. +</P> + +<P> +They knew themselves to be hated—and watched. Again and again they +had narrowly escaped death, and each day they realized that it might be +the last. +</P> + +<P> +The news of the wondrous enthusiasm of the world's peoples gathered in +Babylon and Jerusalem, in their new worship of the golden images of +Apleon, had stirred London, New York, Berlin, Paris—<I>atheistical</I> +Paris; and all other great world-centres, and in each city many images +had been set up. +</P> + +<P> +Though neither Ralph Bastin, or George Bullen had now anything to do +with journalism—they could not obtain work of any kind because of the +absence of the "mark of the Beast" upon their foreheads. But both were +journalists by nature, hence when they knew that the image of the Beast +was to be set up in St. Paul's on a given Sunday, they determined to be +present to see how far this basest of idolatry had really laid hold of +London. +</P> + +<P> +The trio lived together in a little house, in a by-street in +Bloomsbury. Rose would never allow her husband to go out without her; +the times were too perilous, either for him to be in the streets, or +for her to remain alone at home. In the actual language of Ruth, she +had said to him:— +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Entreat me not to leave thee:—for whither thou goest I will go; +where thou lodgest, I will lodge; … where thou diest, I will die; … +the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee +and me</I>." +</P> + +<P> +On reaching the Mansion House—the old building was still there, though +used for another purpose—they were amazed at the excitement which +prevailed in the streets. Thousands of excited people were moving +westwards, many of them evidently bound for St. Paul's. +</P> + +<P> +<I>Every</I>one seemed to be wearing the brand of the "Beast," and more than +once our trio came very near to being set upon, for that they were +defying public opinion, as well as the command of the All-Supreme +Director of consciences as well as lives—Apleon—by the absence of the +"Mark" upon them. +</P> + +<P> +Arrived at the cathedral they had no difficulty in getting in, since +the hour was early, and a rumour having obtained credence that the +great idol was to be wheeled out upon the steps of the cathedral, the +vast bulk of would-be worshippers remained outside of the huge building. +</P> + +<P> +Presently these outside must have become acquainted with the falseness +of the rumour for there was a tremendous rush into the building, until, +in three minutes, it was packed to its utmost limits. +</P> + +<P> +Ralph, George and Rose had secured seats, in the centre of the third +row, almost under the great dome, for they wanted to get as perfect a +view of the image as possible. +</P> + +<P> +The hum of several thousand voices, as the gathered people gossipped +about the image, made quite a volume of sound. Every eye was fixed on +the great golden statue. It was a wondrous piece of work and the +likeness of Apleon was an extraordinary one. The people who were +seated far back could see only from the breast upwards. But those +nearer (Ralph, and George, and Rose among them) who could see not only +the whole figure, but the plinth and the pedestal upon which it stood, +saw that the inscription on the plinth was the same as that which had +been reported as upon the first image, the one set up in the Temple at +Jerusalem—"I AM, THAT I AM!" +</P> + +<P> +A shudder passed over our trio, as they read the blasphemy. +</P> + +<P> +Now, suddenly, a richly-robed priest, holding a silver bugle to his +lips, stood out on the altar steps. The shrill bugle call for +"silence" rang through the great building, and a tomb-like hush fell +upon the multitude. +</P> + +<P> +Another priest, more gorgeously costumed than the first, came slowly +forward chanting clearly and distinctly: +</P> + +<P> +"We believe in Man, in the Religion of Humanity, Man is God, and God is +man. We believe that all the excellencies which of old, were +attributed to the God of the Bible, were but sparks struck out of the +goodnesses that were within the man Himself. Hence we no longer need +to be Divine by proxy." [1] +</P> + +<P> +The organ rolled out a gay note to which the gathered thousands chanted +a gay "Amen!" +</P> + +<P> +"<I>We believe</I>," the priest went on in his chant—"<I>that the living God, +is the marriage of Force and matter, of Head and Hand. And we believe +that the product of this co-ordination is in our Great Superman, the +God of the Universe, Apleon, our Superior-God, and Him we worship and +adore—</I>" +</P> + +<P> +The priest made a well-understood sign, and the whole mass of the +people <I>knelt</I>—they were too crowded to prostrate themselves. The +great organ pealed forth in some wondrous chordings, that were dying +down into zephyr-like breaths, when the voice of the priest broke the +comparative silence. +</P> + +<P> +In harsh, commanding tones, he cried: +</P> + +<P> +"You three rebels, kneel at once!" +</P> + +<P> +The whole congregation lifted their eyes to see two men, and a +beautiful woman between them, standing proudly, fearlessly, amid the +great kneeling throng. +</P> + +<P> +"Kneel, you apostate rebels!" thundered the priest. +</P> + +<P> +For answer, Rose lifted her strong, powerful, beautiful voice, in a +God-inspired spontaneous burst of <I>true</I> worship, singing: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"All Hail the power of Jesus' Name,<BR> +Let angels prostrate fall."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Ralph and her husband caught the inspiration and the musical key, and +the trio had reached the "Bring forth the Royal Diadem," before the +great congregation of blasphemers awoke to the full meaning of what the +song of the trio meant. Then, with a roar like ten thousand lions, +they shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"Kill them! Murder them!" +</P> + +<P> +The priest raised his hand, the bugler sounded "Silence." The old hush +fell upon the people, instantly, and the priest, with a triumphant note +ringing in his voice, and with an equally triumphant smile on his face, +cried: +</P> + +<P> +"We have anticipated the action of such rebels as these, and have +prepared for them. Outside there has been already set up an +automatically-locked scaffold—" +</P> + +<P> +With a wave of his hand towards our trio, he cried; "To the block with +them, unless they instantly worship." +</P> + +<P> +Pointing with his long index finger to the three Protesters, he +shouted: "Kneel!" +</P> + +<P> +For answer they drew themselves upright, and with a ringing gladness +began to sing: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Crown Jesus Lord of all!"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Instantly they were seized, and hurried out of one of the side +entrances. With the utmost difficulty a way was cleared for the +passage of the priests and the three victims—the bugler going ahead +sounding sharp notes of warning on his instrument. +</P> + +<P> +They reached the front of the cathedral, at last. The whole of the +space in the front, at the sides, and far away into "The Fan" was +packed with a seething, excited mass of human life. +</P> + +<P> +Twenty feet high, a light but strong scaffold had been rapidly, and +practically silently, erected—the whole structure having all its +separate parts fitted with automatic lockings. The scaffold stood just +<I>out</I>side the railings that fenced the cathedral from the "Fan." +</P> + +<P> +On the platform of the scaffold was a conical-shaped block, enamelled +in a brilliant red. A huge fellow, leaning on the handle of a +wide-bladed gleaming axe, stood by the side of the block. +</P> + +<P> +The trio of <I>Protestants</I> were taken up the steps of the scaffold. Two +priests accompanied them. The chief of the two priests, he who had led +the chant in the cathedral, held up before the trio a silver figure of +Apleon, about eighteen inches long, and, (amid the intense silence all +around, his words were distinctly heard) cried: "Will you worship God?" +</P> + +<P> +"We <I>do</I> worship God—but we will not worship either the Anti-christ, +Anti-God, or his image!" +</P> + +<P> +It was Ralph who, in ringing fearless tones, replied, the other two +responding with: +</P> + +<P> +"Amen! Amen! to our God who sitteth on The Throne, and to the Lamb, for +ever!" +</P> + +<P> +A savage roar swept upwards from the maddened mass below. +</P> + +<P> +Ralph was told to bow his head upon the block. He did so, while Rose +sang clear and strong: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Am I a soldier of the cross,<BR> +A follower of the Lamb,<BR> +And shall I fear----------"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The chief of the two priests, struck her heavily across the mouth and +silenced her. At the same instant the executioner held aloft, by the +hair, the severed head of Ralph Bastin. +</P> + +<P> +Yells of delight, mingled with "Long live our God Apleon!" greeted the +sight of the head. +</P> + +<P> +George Bullen's head was now upon the block, while Rose, the light of a +holy triumph in her eyes, unable to sing because of her bleeding mouth, +shouted, "Jesus! Jesus! Precious Christ!" +</P> + +<P> +She kept her eyes from the block, and turned slightly away, as the head +of her dear one was held aloft amid the frantic delighted cries of the +murderous mass below. +</P> + +<P> +It was her turn now, and she turned rapturously towards the block. But +before she could lay her head upon the blood-stained horror, the chief +of the priests thrust her forward to the near edge of the floor of the +scaffold, and, holding his hand up for silence, cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Is she too beautiful for the block?" +</P> + +<P> +He caught her up suddenly in his arms, and held her as high aloft as +his strength would permit, as he shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"Does any one want her, if you do, say so, and I will hurl her down!" +</P> + +<P> +"Behead her!" roared a voice in the crowd, and thousands of voices +joined in the cry. +</P> + +<P> +The priest dragged her to the block and laid her neck in the hollow of +it. There was a flash of steel in the sunlight, and the beautiful head +rolled into the basket. The next moment it was being held aloft by the +long, lovely hair, the people below yelling with joy. +</P> + +<P> +At a sign from the priest, the bugler sounded for "silence." Then the +priest cried: +</P> + +<P> +"So shall die every rebel against our LORD GOD, <I>The Emperor</I>!" +</P> + +<P> +With a wave of his hand towards the Cathedral behind him, he added: +</P> + +<P> +"Our worship will be continued in our Temple and, for today, at least, +worship will continue all day." +</P> + +<P> +The fools, the dupes, flocked back to the cathedral—as many as could +crowd in. Those who could not get in watched the bodies and heads of +the three martyrs for God hurled down from the scaffold on the stones +below. +</P> + +<P> +Someone suggested the river, and six lengths of line were quickly got, +and amid the howls of mingled execrations, and the notes of a fiendish +joy, the three heads and three trunks were dragged down to the +blackfriars end of the embankment. +</P> + +<P> +Here men cut the clothes from the three bodies, and the naked forms +were kicked into almost shapeless masses, before they were eventually +hurled over the embankment into the swirling muddy Thames. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>He, (The False Prophet) had power … to cause that as many as +would not worship the image of the Beast should be killed</I>." +</P> + +<P> +From this day there began a perfect reign of terror on the earth, for +the vast bulk of the people who had yielded utter allegiance to the +"Beast," and to his worship, became heretic-hunters. Natural affection +appeared to be actually absent from the world, and sons and daughters +betrayed fathers and mothers, husbands betrayed wives, wives husbands, +and the friend his friends. +</P> + +<P> +Thousands were beheaded every month, taking the earth over—men, women, +and children, who had learned to trust God, and who waited for the +coming Kingdom of Christ, when, having put down all enemies under his +feet, he should begin his reign of a thousand years. These saved ones, +and martyred ones, were "an innumerable multitude saved out of T H E +great tribulation, from all nations, kindreds, and peoples, and +tongues." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +[1] This creed, in its essence, and often in its terminology is taken +from a book already published, in which the religion of Humanism exalts +man to the place of God. (Author.) +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A GATHERING UP. +</H3> + + +<P> +At this stage it seems well to the writer to gather together in a +brief—but necessarily very fragmentary fashion—some of the chief +events of the second half of Anti-christ's reign, and those immediately +preceding the millenial reign of Christ. The object of this little +volume, as well as its predecessor—"In the Twinkling of an Eye"—being +chiefly to incite in the readers of the two books, a desire to look +into the wonders of the "After Events," we can only touch upon these +things in the most disjointed fashion, many events, from necessity of +space, being untouched altogether. +</P> + +<BR> +<HR WIDTH="60%" ALIGN="center"> +<BR> + +<P> +The two scenes recorded in previous chapters—the torture and beheading +of Isaac Wolferstein and his beautiful <I>fiancee</I>, Miriam Cohen, and the +beheading of three at St. Paul's—were duplicated many thousands of +times, every town and city of the wide world had its own hideous tale +of torturing and of death. +</P> + +<P> +The effect upon the bulk of the people was to deepen "the strong +delusion," as to Anti-christ, under which they laboured, so that they +fed upon "The Lie," and became abject slaves in their wills and worship +of the "Man of Sin." +</P> + +<P> +The effect of the persecution and martyrdoms upon most of the +believers—kingdom believers—was to stiffen their faith, and to +confirm their hope in the near Coming of the Christ, to take vengeance +upon his foes and deliver his people. +</P> + +<P> +The licentiousness and blasphemy of the times was as a veritable +atmosphere abroad, so that, affected by it, the love of the many +towards God waxed colder and colder, until they flung off the last +semblance of allegiance to Him, in thought, word, or deed, and wholly +given up to "The Lie," they ripened rapidly for Judgment. +</P> + +<P> +But amid the almost universal declension, there was ever the +remnant—Jew and Gentile—who "endured, seeing the invisible," and +strengthening their souls in the special tribulation promise "<I>He that +shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved!</I>" +</P> + +<P> +And these endurers shall be God's witnesses unto all nations. No +suffering, privation, no spending or being spent will be counted too +much by these tribulation-time witnesses; they will live only to serve +God in witnessing. +</P> + +<P> +The chief source of temptation and danger to the "Kingdom Believers" +will be from the ever multiplying "False Christs." Each new imposter +parading some new notion, but each in turn, either publicly slain by +order of the "False Prophet," or mysteriously disappearing. The only +likeness of imposture in them all, existed in their claim to be the +Saviour who should deliver from the awful days of tribulation which the +would-be godly were passing through. +</P> + +<P> +A similar thing preceded the first advent of our Lord, only <I>then</I>, the +sole trust of these imposters was in their own statements; but before +the coming of Christ again <I>to the earth</I>, when the cry will often be +"Lo here is Christ," and "Lo there is Christ," these imposters will +buttress their claims with the exhibition of supernatural powers. +</P> + +<P> +The "remnant" of faithful Jews which we saw in our last chapter, +escaping to the "wilderness," will be only a remnant. The main body of +the Jews of the world will have concentrated themselves in Jerusalem, +its neighbourhood, and parts of Palestine left to them after the +partition of the land by Anti-christ. Dan. xi. 9. +</P> + +<P> +It would seem as though the "remnant," meanwhile learn of God so +intimately that they become the Evangelizers of the world, preaching +the Gospel of the <I>coming kingdom of Christ</I>. Rev. xiv. 6, 7. Matt. +xxiv. 14. +</P> + +<P> +Among those Jews who were unable to escape with the "remnant," there +are also others who are loyal to God, who would not worship the Beast +or his image, many of whom are betrayed by their bigoted Jewish +relatives. All these, alike, are delivered up to Anti-christ and to +his creatures, to be tortured and to be killed. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Then shall be great Tribulation, such as was not since the beginning +of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those +days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the +elect's sake, those days shall be shortened</I>." Matt. xxiv. 21, 22. +Dan. xii. 1. Jer. xxx. 7, 11, 14, 15. Zech. xiii 8, 9. +</P> + +<P> +May it not well be that the imprecatory Psalms, otherwise so difficult +to understand, in the virulence of their desires for vengeance, etc., +are prophetic of these days of persecution and tribulation? As well, +too, must be many of the <I>Prayers</I> of the Psalms, etc. Ps. xxv. 2. +Ps. lxxiv. Ps. cxl. Ps. lxxix. Isaiah xxxv. 3, 4. Isaiah li. 12-15. +Micah vii. 8, 9. Luke xviii. 7, 8. +</P> + +<P> +The almost universal return of the Jew to his own land, with all the +aims of Zionism, and other kindred movements among the Hebrew people +today is, curiously enough, not marked by the <I>religious</I> spirit, but +purely national. The comparatively few pious souls (certainly not more +than a quarter of a million, if that) who built the Temple, and +afterwards flee into the "wilderness," or are beheaded rather than +worship the Beast, or who, unable to get away in time, are beheaded for +their loyalty to God, are now left out of future count in the history +of the final fate of Jerusalem. +</P> + +<P> +The city will probably be enormously enlarged and will come to embrace +miles of suburbs, as London has absorbed towns as far distant, almost, +as Croydon, in Surrey. +</P> + +<P> +In the latter years of the great Tribulation there will appear to be a +general rising of the nations against Jerusalem—against the Jews. It +may well be, that all the powers will have become so indebted, +<I>financially</I>, to the Jews, that there shall be an universal outbreak +of Anti-Semitism, the real cause of the outbreak being inability on the +part of the nations to pay their debts, when they shall make common +cause against the Jew, hoping thus to clear off their debts, by the +destruction of their creditors. +</P> + +<P> +Preparatory to this great and final struggle, the great eastern +boundary river, the Euphrates, will be dried up. The <I>literal</I> +accomplishment of this great physical wonder, is an absolute necessity, +if the vast hordes of the Eastern armies are to be marched to Jerusalem. +</P> + +<P> +Even as those days of the end draw nearer and nearer God's people of +that time will suffer more and yet more. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Happy the dead who in the Lord do die from henceforth. Yea (saith +the Spirit) that they may rest from their toils, for their works do +follow with them. Ceased only that form of service which brings +weariness, and have found perfect happiness in the ability to continue +service without weariness</I>."—ROTHERHAM. +</P> + +<P> +While this is true of all the saints of all the ages, it is +specifically true of those who, in The Great Tribulation, shall lay +down their lives for God in faithful, enduring obedience. +</P> + +<P> +And now the end draws ever more rapidly near. North, East, South and +West of Palestine the armies of allies against Jerusalem close in upon +her. Had the Jewish race been as loyally devoted to their God and His +Word as they had been to Anti-christ the Deceiver, and his vile, +promulgated laws, they would have, inevitably, recognized Psalms +lxxxiii. 3, 4, as a prophecy of this time and the approach of their +foes: "They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted +against thy hidden ones." They have said, "Come, and let us cut them +off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in +remembrance." +</P> + +<P> +But God has not forgotten His promises to Israel, and the time of her +worst visitation, is to be His opportunity: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Wait ye upon Me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the +prey; for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may +assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my +fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my +jealousy</I>." Zeph. iii. 8. "<I>Now also many nations are gathered +against thee (Zion,) but they know not the thoughts of the Lord, +neither understand they His counsel: for He shall gather them as the +sheaves into the floor</I>." Mich. iv. 11, 12. "<I>In that time, when I +shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also +gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of +Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for My people and for My +heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted +My land</I>." Joel iii. 1, 2, 9-12, 14. Zech. xiv. 1, 2. Zech. xii. 2, +3. Ps. lxviii. 1-3. Joel ii. 32. +</P> + +<P> +Against the gathered multitudes of the armed nations—every devilish +instrument of war then known, being brought to bear against the doomed +city, doomed as the allies consider it—the Jews can bring but a +comparatively feeble resistance. With seeming ease, Jerusalem would +appear to be taken. "<I>The city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, +and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into +captivity</I>, AND THE RESIDUE OF THE PEOPLE SHALL NOT BE CUT OFF FROM THE +CITY." Zech. xiv. 2. +</P> + +<P> +With great spoil, full of unholy rejoicing, their souls steeped in +pride, their hands stained with blood, the victorious armies march to +the great plain of Esdraelon to hold a mighty revel, and to prepare for +any future event. +</P> + +<BR> +<HR WIDTH="60%" ALIGN="center"> +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"How oft after anxious provisions of man<BR> +Flashes in with a silence God's unforseen plan!"<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"God is a tower without a stair<BR> +And His perfection loves despair."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The residue of the people of Jerusalem, who were left in the city on +the triumphant departure of the allies of Hell, were utterly broken in +spirit. Their discomfited hearts will be being prepared for some word +or sin. Will they then begin to see their national, as well as their +individual folly? Who can say for certain? But the near-to-come +events with them, would almost seem to point to something like this. +Certainly, God's unforseen plan was about to flash in upon their +despairing condition. +</P> + +<P> +The world's peoples were "<I>fully ripe</I>" for the Judgment, and the +"<I>sharp sickle</I>" of Judgment was now waiting to fall into the earth. +</P> + +<P> +First come "signs," every sign a warning, yet the peoples, the enemies +of Christ, will not hear nor see. "<I>Immediately after the Tribulation +of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give +her light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the +heavens shall be shaken</I>." Matt. xxiv. 29. Isaiah xiii. 9-10-13. +Joel ii. 30, 31. Joel iii. 15. Rev. vi. 12-14. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>And then</I>" (<I>after</I> the Tribulation, and <I>after</I> these +hysical signs and disturbances) "<I>shall appear the sign<BR> +of the Son of Man in Heaven</I>." Matt. xxiv. 30. +</P> + +<P> +What will this sign be? We cannot actually say. The only Scriptural +hint we know of is our Lord's own word that "the Manifestation of His +Presence will be as the lightning which flashes from the one end of +heaven to the other." +</P> + +<P> +It may be that this will occur while men are horrified with the +unnatural darkness, and that the "sign" will be a sudden and momentary +cleaving of the black heavens, so that the glory of the Lord will break +through, and He will, for an instant, be revealed in close proximity to +earth. Will it be thus that the Jew will receive his sign from heaven? +</P> + +<P> +That which follows, and which should be rendered: "<I>Then shall all the +tribes of the land mourn</I>," points to the connection of this verse with +Zechariah's prophecy: "<I>And I will pour upon the house of David, and +upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and +supplications: and they shall look upon ME Whom they have pierced, and +they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall +be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his +firstborn</I>." Zech. xii. 10. +</P> + +<P> +"And again, the manner in which Zechariah's prophecy is quoted in the +Apocalypse may, perhaps, afford some slight argument in favour of the +explanation of the sign suggested above, namely, that it is Christ +Himself seen for a moment through a rift in the clouds, for John says, +'<I>Behold He cometh with the clouds: and every eye shall see Him, and +they also which pierced Him: and all the TRIBES OF THE LAND shall mourn +because of Him</I>.' +</P> + +<P> +"Thus the Jews, although they may not as yet understand all, will at +least know that it was the Messenger of Jehovah whom they slew, and +that in so doing they pierced Himself. And they will mourn with no +feigned lamentation, but as one mourns for his first-born, nay, his +only son. All their pride will have broken down; for the word will +then have been fulfilled, '<I>I will take away out of the midst of thee +them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty +because of My holy mountain. I will also leave in the midst of thee an +afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the +Lord</I>.' Zeph. ii. 11, 12. +</P> + +<P> +"Then will God look down upon the stiff-necked and rebellious people, +whom long centuries of chastisement could not subdue, and lo! a +remnant, broken-hearted and contrite, humbly confessing that '<I>all +their righteousnesses are as filthy rags, that they are all fading as a +leaf, and that their iniquities, like the wind, have carried them +away</I>.' They long for the personal interposition of God their Father, +and cry, '<I>Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens, that Thou wouldst +come down!</I>' They are ready at last, for their Messiah. Christ has +become precious to them: there is no need that He, the true Joseph, +should longer refrain Himself. He had indeed said, 'Ye shall not see +Me henceforth till ye shall say, "<I>Blessed is He that cometh in the +name of the Lord</I>."'" +</P> + +<P> +"But that word withholds Him no longer; for now their eyes are waiting +for the Lord their God, until that He have mercy upon them: their souls +are watching for Him more than they that watch for the morning." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +(PEMBER'S "GREAT PROPHECIES.") +</P> + +<P> +<I>Then shall He suddenly come, "His feet shall stand in that day upon +the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the +Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and +toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley, and half of +the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the +south. And ye shall flee to MY valley, when He shall touch the valley +of the mountain to the place He separated</I>." Zech. xiv. 4, 5. +</P> + +<P> +In this great valley of His special making it is possible, probable, +that our Lord will shelter His people, while He is destroying the +hordes of Anti-christ. It is of this that Isaiah speaks: "<I>Come My +people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: +hide thyself as it were for a little moment</I>, UNTIL THE INDIGNATION BE +OVER PAST. <I>For behold the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the +inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity</I>." And when that awful +judgment shall be over—"<I>which shall burn as an oven</I>," they shall +come out of their shelter "<I>skipping as calves of the stall</I>." A +wondrous figure of the frolicsome calves coming out of the darkness of +their stalls into the glorious light, and into the full freshness of +the luscious meadows. +</P> + +<P> +All this time Anti-christ and his warrior hosts are camped in the plain +of Esdraelon, preparing for a fresh attack that is to utterly demolish +the Jews as a nation. +</P> + +<P> +To Apleon, The Anti-christ, word comes of the appearance of Christ, and +that He is espousing the cause of Israel. +</P> + +<P> +Satan, and his colleagues, self-blinded, suppose that they can war with +and overcome even Christ and His hosts of saints; and, determined to do +this: "<I>the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take +counsel together, against His Anointed</I>." Psa. ii. 2. +</P> + +<P> +Armageddon—the Valley of Megidda; "The Valley of Jehosaphat;" +"Bozrah," all these names are mentioned as the scene of the great final +conflict between Anti-christ and Christ, between the armies of the +earth, and the translated Saints of God who return with Christ. +</P> + +<P> +It is probable that the line of the encamped hosts of Anti-christ will +extend from Bozrah, on the southeast, to Megidda, on the North-west. +Is it we wonder, merely a coincidence that this should measure exactly +1,600 <I>Stadia</I>, the actual distance named in Rev. xiv. 16, as that over +which the blood of the judgment wine-press flowed. +</P> + +<P> +Surely Habakkuk's wonderful prophetic vision covered this great +battle-field. "God came <I>from Teman</I>, and the Holy One <I>from Mount +Paran</I>." The march of God's indignation would seem to be from Sinai, +through Idumea, past Jerusalem, and on to the mighty field of +Esdraelon's plain. +</P> + +<P> +Oh, what a scene it will be! The glory, the judgment! our Christ on +His White Horse; His eyes a flame of fire; on his head many crowns +(diamens,) vestured and girded with his title "KING OF KINGS AND LORD +OF LORDS!" his bride is with Him—for the "<I>Marriage of the Lamb</I>" has +taken place; the bride is every believer who has been gathered out of +the world by the Spirit. You, who read this, he who writes this, if so +be we are in Christ, "<I>looking for, and hasting the coming of our +Lord</I>," yes, we shall be there, we shall be His army. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>On white horses</I>," whether literal horses or not does not matter, the +term implies force, power, swift movement, even triumph. Christ's army +will be a cavalry force. Like our Lord we shall wear no +armour,—"clothed in fine linen, white, pure,"—we shall be immortal, +"<I>no weapon that is formed against us shall prosper</I>." +</P> + +<P> +Every enemy, every foe of Christ will be there. The earth-armies, the +dwellers of the earth, Demon-possessed, will be blinded, deluded by the +lie of the Anti-christ, and "The False Prophet." There is no madness +or delusion into which the most rational of men will not run when they +are demon-possessed. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Outside the city</I>, the battle takes place, for the city has become +Holy by the recent presence of Christ. Not even a private soldier of +Anti-christ's hosts is <I>inside</I> the city, for, it may well be, that +Christ has already appropriated it. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Outside the city, the wine-press is trodden</I>!" wonderful figure! +"Fully ripe," is said to be the condition of the "<I>grapes of the vine +of the earth</I>." What grape, more so a <I>ripe</I> grape, can stand the +weight of a man as his foot crushes down upon it? And the iron heel of +"The Lion of Judah," crushes out the life of these gathered hell-led, +hell-inspired hosts, "<I>and blood came forth out of the wine-press of +God's wrath, up to the bits of the horses for distance of 1,600 +stadia</I>." A river of blood 160 miles in length, and reaching to the +horses' bits in depth! Even if it be taken as a figure only, the +figure is never so great as the fact it prefigures! "<I>The land shall +be drunk with blood, and its dust made fat with fatness, for it is the +day of Jehovah's vengeance, the year of recompenses for the controversy +against Zion</I>." Isaiah xxxiv. 7, 8. +</P> + +<P> +As a picture of the absolute triumph of God, on this occasion, the +Psalmist uses the most awful figure of any in the Bible—THE LAUGHTER +OF GOD! "<I>He that sitteth in the Heavens SHALL LAUGH; the Lord shall +have them in derision</I>." Ps. ii. 4. "<I>God is not mocked</I>!" +</P> + +<P> +"<I>And the Beast (Anti-christ) was taken</I>." The ring-leader is first +taken, not slain with the others. Taken alive, he is cast into the +Lake of Fire. The confidence of the mighty host of Hell-inspired +warrior hosts, had been "<I>Who is like unto the Beast? Who can war with +him?</I>" But they see him taken, taken alive, taken without being able +to lift a finger against his captors. Tophet had been prepared for +him, and into that awful abyss he sinks to rise no more. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>And with him the False Prophet who wrought the miracles in his +presence</I>." Colleagues in evil on earth, the two are hurled into the +same Lake of Fire. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>And the rest were slain with the Sword of the Sitter on the horse</I>, +(The Conquering Christ,) <I>which sword proceeded out of His mouth</I>." +"<I>He speaks and it is done</I>." +</P> + +<P> +"<I>And a certain angel standing in the sun</I>," has been placed there +ready to call forth the final actors on this hideous battle-field, +"<I>cried with a great voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in +mid-heaven, 'Hither be gathered together to the great supper of God, +that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and flesh of captains of thousands, +and flesh of mighty men, and flesh of horses, and of those that sit on +them, and flesh of all (classes of people,) both free and bond, and +small and great … and the fowls were filled from their flesh</I>." +Rev. xix. +</P> + +<P> +At the great and terrible conflict there are lightnings and thunders of +unheard of force and might. "<I>The Lord of Hosts</I>," says Isaiah xxix. +6, "<I>shall visit with thunder, with earthquake, and great noise, with +storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire</I>." All through +God's judgments, during the seven years of Anti-christ, aerial +convulsions will be continual. One reason for this, during the later +events will doubtless be to overwhelm and destroy the myriad <I>aerial</I> +engines of war used by the senselessly deluded attacking hosts arrayed +against Jerusalem and against Christ and His Saints. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon +the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great</I>." Rev. xvi. 18. +Jerusalem will be split into three parts, as a result of this +earthquake. But the effect upon the nations is <I>utter</I> ruin,—"<I>the +cities of the nations fell</I>." London, New York, Paris, Berlin, +Chicago, every other city, collapses like a rent balloon, and the +opened earth swallows up palaces and cots, men and women, and what the +overwhelming and the falling shall not slay, shall perish in the awful +conflagrations produced. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>And Babylon the great was remembered in the presence of God to give +her the cup of wine of the fierceness of His anger</I>." Babylon, the +great, the colossal city of mighty splendor, re-built, as we saw +earlier in this book, will have become exclusively a <I>commercial</I> city. +All the vice and sin and voluptuousness of all the vilest cities of the +whole world, through all the ages, gathered up into one whole foulness, +would be as virtue compared with the foulness and vice and +voluptuousness of the Great Babylon. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Fallen, Fallen, Babylon the Great</I>." May we gather from the +twice-repeated word "Fallen," that the collapse comprises the two +things "<I>Babylon, mystery!</I>"—the foul religious system, the false +worship,—and also Babylon <I>the city</I>? +</P> + +<P> +God does not settle His accounts every Saturday night as petty +tradesmen do. Babylon had been garnering judgment for herself, from +the beginning. And the cry of doom goes out against her, from Heaven. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Render to her even as she rewarded, and double the double according +to her works; in the cup which she mixed, mix for her double; insomuch +as she glorified herself and was wanton, TO THAT PROPORTION give to her +torment and grief. Because she saith in her heart, I sit a queen and +am not a widow, and shall see no mourning, therefore, IN ONE DAY, shall +come her plagues, death, and mourning and famine, and with fire shall +she be burnt, because strong is the Lord who hath judged her</I>." +</P> + +<P> +And never more after this shall the foul city arise. +</P> + +<P> +Awful convulsions of the earth will take place all over the world. The +whole configuration of the earth shall be changed. Mountains and +islands, well known before, will disappear. +</P> + +<P> +With all the other aerial and other convulsions of nature, a hailstorm, +covering an enormous area, will be one of the horrors, when, putting +the weight of the stones at the lowest average, they will probably be +quite a hundred-weight each. +</P> + +<P> +And so event will follow event in such rapid succession as to puzzle +the writer how to place them wholly in consecutive order. Satan will +be taken and bound for a thousand years. The <I>living</I> nations will +have been judged as regards their treatment of the Jews, and as to +their acceptance of the Gospel of the Kingdom. +</P> + +<P> +On, on, on, event upon event, until the glorious millennial reign of +Christ shall be ushered in. +</P> + +<P> +But before anything of which we have written in these pages can come to +pass, our precious, loving Lord must come into the air to take up His +own people to Himself. For this every true Christian should be +looking, waiting, watching,—and <I>working</I> while they wait, for He has +said "<I>Occupy</I> till I come." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"So I am watching quietly<BR> + Every day,<BR> +Whenever the sun shines brightly<BR> + I rise and say,--<BR> +"Surely it is the shining of His face,"<BR> +And look unto the gates of His high place<BR> + Beyond the sea,<BR> +For I know He is coming shortly<BR> + To summon me.<BR> +And when a shadow falls across the window<BR> + Of my room,<BR> +Where I am working my appointed task,<BR> +I lift my head to watch the door, and ask<BR> + If He is come?<BR> +And the Angel answers sweetly<BR> + In my home,----<BR> +"Only a few more shadows,<BR> + And He will come."<BR> +"Even so, Lord Jesus! Come! Come quickly!"<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +"FINIS?" No! WAITING! +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARK OF THE BEAST***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 18815-h.txt or 18815-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/8/1/18815">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/8/1/18815</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/18815-h/images/img-096.jpg b/18815-h/images/img-096.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dfbc228 --- /dev/null +++ b/18815-h/images/img-096.jpg diff --git a/18815.txt b/18815.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..749b57f --- /dev/null +++ b/18815.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7935 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Mark of the Beast, by Sidney Watson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Mark of the Beast + + +Author: Sidney Watson + + + +Release Date: July 13, 2006 [eBook #18815] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARK OF THE BEAST*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustration. + See 18815-h.htm or 18815-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/8/1/18815/18815-h/18815-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/8/1/18815/18815-h.zip) + + + + + +THE MARK OF THE BEAST + +by + +SIDNEY WATSON + +Author of "In the Twinkling of An Eye"; "Scarlet and Purple" + + + + + + + +New York +Fleming H. Revell Company +London and Edinburgh +Copyright, 1918, by +Bible Institute of Los Angeles +Copyright, 1933, by +Fleming H. Revell Company + + + + +PUBLISHER'S NOTE. + +After the Lord's Second Coming, what will happen to those left behind? +What will the Tribulation period be like? What will happen during the +reign of the Antichrist? What is meant by "The Mark of the Beast"? +What will be the fate of those who refuse to bear this mark? + +All of these questions and many others connected with the mark of the +beast, are answered in this realistic, startling, awe-inspiring story. + +Although entirely fictional, the author has based his narrative on just +what the Bible teaches concerning the Great Tribulation--that awful +period of distress and woe that is coming upon this earth during the +time when the Anti-christ will rule with unhindered sway. It is a +story you will never forget--a story that has been used of God in the +salvation of souls, and in awakening careless Christians to the need of +a closer walk with Jesus in their daily lives. This volume deserves a +wide reading. It should be in every Sunday School Library and in every +home. + + + + +TO THAT CHAMPION OF "THE WORD OF GOD," + +THE + +REV. G. CAMPBELL MORGAN, D.D. + +THIS BOOK IS + +(BY HIS PERMISSION) HUMBLY + +DEDICATED + +IN RECOGNITION OF THE SPIRITUAL HELP, + +AND A DEEP QUICKENING + +TO BIBLE STUDY RECEIVED BY THE + +AUTHOR + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +PREFACE. + +PROLOGUE. + +CHAPTER. + + I. TWENTY FIVE YEARS LATER + II. A "SUPER MAN" + III. "TO THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL" + IV. FORESHADOWINGS + V. CRUEL AS THE GRAVE! + VI. "A REED LIKE A ROD" + VII. "THE MARK OF THE BEAST" + VIII. THE INVESTITURE + IX. THE DEDICATION + X. A LEBANON ROSE + XI. HERO WORSHIP + XII. ANTI-"WE-ISM" + XIII. "THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION" + XIV. DEATH OF THE "TWO WITNESSES" + XV. FLIGHT! PURSUIT! + XVI. MARTYRED + XVII. A GATHERING UP + + + + +ILLUSTRATION + +The Mark of the Beast + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The great acceptance with which the Author's previous volume "In the +Twinkling of an Eye" was received, when published in Oct. 1910, +together with the many records of blessing resulting from the perusal, +leads him to hope that the present volume may prove equally useful. + +The subjects treated in this volume are possibly less known, (even +among _some_ who hold the truth of the Lord's _Near_ Return in joyful +Hope) than the subjects handled "In the Twinkling of an Eye," but they +certainly should have as much interest as the earlier truths, and +should lead (those hitherto unacquainted with them) to a careful, +prayerful searching of "The Word." + +The Author would here mark his indebtedness to Dr. Joseph A. Seiss, and +Dr. Campbell Morgan, for the inceptive thoughts _re_ Judas Iscariot, +and The Antichrist. Dr. Campbell Morgan's very remarkable sermon on +"Christ and Judas"--under date December 18, 1908--while being +profoundly interesting and illuminating, it has proved to the Author to +be the only sound theory of explanation of that perplexing +personality--Judas Iscariot--he has ever met. + +While cleaving close to Scripture, at the same time it has settled the +life-long perplexity of the writer of this book, as to the difficulties +surrounding "The Traitor." + +The fictional form has again been adopted in this volume, for the same +reasons that obtained in the writing of "In the Twinkling of an Eye." +The use of the fictional style for the presentment of sacred subjects +is ever a moot-point with some people. Yet, every parable, allegory, +etc., (not excepting Bunyan's Master-piece) is _fictional_ form. So +that the moot-point really becomes one of _degree_ and not of +_principle_--if Bunyan, Milton, and Dante, be allowed to be right. +Certain it is that many thousands have read, and have been awakened, +quickened, even converted, by reading "In the Twinkling of an Eye," +"Long Odds," "He's coming To-morrow," (Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe) who +would never have looked at an ordinary pamphlet or book upon the +subject. One of the truest and most noted leaders (in the "Church") on +our great convention platforms, himself an authority, and voluminous +writer on the _pre_-milleniarian view of our Lord's near Return, (a +perfect stranger, personally, to the writer) wrote within a week or two +of the issue of "In the Twinkling of an Eye," saying: + +"I have just finished reading your _wonderful_ book "In the Twinkling +of an Eye." It has _solemnised_ me _very greatly_--more than anything +for a long time . . . . May the Lord use your book to _STARTLE_ the +careless, ill-taught professing Christians . . . Please send me 24 +copies, etc., etc." + +The desire of the author of "The Mark of the Beast" has been to further +"startle" and awaken "careless, ill-taught _professing_ Christians," by +giving some faint view of the fate of those _professors_ who will be +"_left behind_" to go through the horrors of The Tribulation. + +To be true to his subject, and to his convictions, the author has had +to approach one or two _delicate_ subjects. These he has sought to +touch in a veiled, a guarded way. Each reader, if desirous of pursuing +more minutely the study of those special parts, can do so by referring +to other Christian author's works. + +That there is a growing interest in the whole subject of "The Lord's +Coming," is very apparent in many ways. The intense interest and +quickening that has accompanied the Author's many series of Bible +Readings on "The Near Return of our Lord," during the past twelve +months especially, would have proved the revived interest in the +subject--if proof had been needed. + +SYDNEY WATSON. + + +"The Firs," Vernham Dean, Hungerford, Berks. + +April 24th, 1911. + + + + +THE MARK OF THE BEAST + + +PROLOGUE. + +It was late August. The year 18-- no matter the exact date, except that +the century was growing old. A small house-party was gathered under the +sixteenth century roof of that fine old Warwickshire house, "The Antlers." + +"Very old famerly, very old!" the head coachman was fond of saying +to sight-seers, and others. "Come over with William of Normandy, +the first Duerdon did. Famerly allus kept 'emselves very eleck, +cream-del-al-cream, as the saying is in hupper cirkles." + +The coachman's estimate of the Duerdon House will serve all the purpose +we need here, and enable us to move among the guests of the house-party +though we have little to do save with two of them--the most striking +female personality in the house, Judith Montmarte, and the latest society +lion, Colonel Youlter, the Thibet explorer. + +Judith Montmarte, as her name suggests, was a Jewess. She was tall--it +is curious that the nineteen centuries of Semitic persecution should have +left the Jewess taller, in proportion, than the Jew--Judith Montmarte was +tall, with a full figure. The contour of her face suggested Spanish +blood. Her hair--what a wealth of it there was--was blue-black, finer +than such hair usually is, and with a sheen on it like unto a raven's +wing. Her eyes were large, black, and melting in their fullness. Her +lips were full, and rich in their crimson. + +The face was extraordinarily beautiful, in a general way. But though the +lips and eyes would be accounted lovely, yet a true student of faces +would have read cruelty in the ruby lips, and a shade of hell lurking in +the melting black eyes. A millionairess, several times over, (if report +could be trusted) she was known and felt to be a powerful personage. +There was not a continental or oriental court where she was not +well-known--and feared, because of her power. A much-travelled woman, a +wide reader--especially in the matter of the occult; a superb musician; a +Patti and a Lind rolled into one, made her the most wonderful songster of +the day. + +In character--chameleon is the only word that can in anyway describe her. +As regarded her appearances in society, her acceptance of invitations, +etc., she was usually regarded as capricious, to a fault. But this was +as it _appeared_ to those with whom she had to do. She had been known to +refuse a banquet at the table of a prince, yet eat a dish of macaroni +with a peasant, or boiled chestnuts with a forest charcoal burner. What +the world did not know, did not realize, was that, in these things, she +was not capricious, but simply serving some deep purpose of her life. + +She had accepted the Duerdon invitation because she specially desired to +meet Colonel Youlter. + +To-night, the pair had met for the first time, just five minutes before +the gong had sounded for dinner. Colonel Youlter had taken her down to +the dining-room. + +Just at first she had spoken but little, and the Colonel had thought her +fatigued, for he had caught one glimpse of the dreamy languor in her +great liquid eyes. + +An almost chance remark of his, towards the end of the meal, anent the +mysticism, the spiritism of the East, and the growing cult of the same +order in the West, appeared to suddenly wake her from her dreaminess. +Her dark eyes were turned quickly up to his, a new and eager light +flashed in them. + +"Do you know," she said, her tone low enough to be caught only by him, +"that it was only the expectation of meeting you, and hearing you talk of +the occult, of that wondrous mysticism of the East, that made me accept +the invitation to this house--that is, I should add, at this particular +time, for I _had_ arranged to go to my glorious Hungarian hills this +week." + +Colonel Youlter searched her face eagerly. Had she spoken the tongue of +flattery, or of the mere conventional? He saw she had not, and he began +to regard her with something more than the mere curiosity with which he +had anticipated meeting her. + +In his callow days he had been romantic to a degree. Even now his heart +was younger than his years, for while he had never wed, because of a +love-tragedy thirty years before, he had preserved a rare, a very tender +chivalry towards women. He knew he would never love again, as he had +once loved, though, at times, he told himself that he might yet love in a +soberer fashion, and even wed. + +"You are interested in the occult, Miss Montmarte?" he replied. + +She smiled up into his face, as she said: + +"'Interested,' Colonel Youlter? interested is no word for it, for I might +almost say that it is a passion with me, for very little else in life +really holds me long, compared with my love for it." + +She glanced swiftly to right and left, and across the table to see if she +was being watched, or listened to. Everyone seemed absorbed with either +their plates or their companions. + +Bending towards the man at her side, she said, "You know what an evening +is like at such times as this. We women will adjourn to the Drawing +Room, you men will presently join us, there will be a buzzing of voices, +talk--'cackle' one of America's representatives used to term it, and it +was a good name, only that the hen has done something to cackle about, +she has fulfilled the purpose for which she came into existence, and +women--the average Society women, at least--do not. Then there'll be +singing, of a sort, and--but you know, Colonel, all the usual rigmarole. +Now I want a long, long talk with you about the subject you have just +broached. We could not talk, as we would, in the crowd that will be in +the drawing-room presently, so I wonder if you would give me an hour in +the library, tomorrow morning after breakfast. I suggest the library +because I find it is the one room in the house into which no one ever +seems to go. Of course, Colonel Youlter, if you have something else you +must needs do in the forenoon, pray don't regard my suggestion. Or, if +you would prefer that we walked and talked, I will gladly accommodate +myself to your time and your conveniences." + +He assured her that he had made no plans for the morrow, and that he +would be delighted to meet her in the library, for a good long 'confab' +over the subject that evidently possessed a mutual attraction for them. + +Mentally, while he studied her, he decided that her chief charm, in his +eyes, was her absolute naturalness and unconventionality. "But to some +men," he mused "what a danger zone she would prove. Allied to her great +beauty, her wealth, and her gifts, there is a way with her that would +make her almost absolutely irresistible if she had set her heart on +anything!" + +An hour later that opinion deepened within him as he listened to her +singing in the drawing-room. She had been known to bluntly, flatly +refuse an Emperor who had asked her to sing, and yet to take a little +Sicillian street singer's tambourine from her hand, and sing the coppers +and silver out of the pockets of the folk who had crowded the +market-place at the first liquid notes of her song. She rarely sang in +the houses of her hosts and hostesses. Tonight she had voluntarily gone +to the piano, accompanying herself. + +She sang in Hungarian, a folk-song, and a love song of the people of her +own land. Yearning and wistful, full of that curious mystical +melancholy, that always appealed to her own soul, and which characterizes +some of the oldest of the Hungarian folk-songs. + +Her second song finished, amid the profoundest hush, she rose as suddenly +from the piano as she had seated herself. A little later she was missed +from the company. She had slipped away to her room, after a quiet +good-night to her table-companion, Colonel Youlter. + + * * * * * * + +At ten-thirty, next morning, Judith Montmarte entered the library. The +Colonel was there already. He rose to meet her, saying, "Where will you +sit? Where will you be most comfortable." + +There was a decidedly "comfo" air about the luxuriously-furnished room. +The eyes of the beautiful woman--she was twenty-eight--swept the +apartment and, finally, resting upon a delightful _vis-a-vis_, she +laughed merrily, as she said: + +"Fancy finding a _vis-a-vis_, and of this luxurious type, too, in a +library. I always think it is a mistake to have the library of the house +so stiff, sometimes the library is positively forbidding." + +She laughed lightly again, as she said. "I'm going off into a +disquisition on interiors, so--shall we sit here?" + +She dropped into one of the curves of the _vis-a-vis_, and he took the +other. + +For half-an-hour their talk on their pet subject was more or less +general, then he startled her by asking: + +"Do you know the Christian New Testament, at all?" + +"The Gospels, I have read," she replied, "and am fairly well familiar +with them. I have read, too, the final book, "The Revelation," which +though a sealed book to me, as far as knowledge of its meaning goes, yet +has, I confess, a perennial attraction for me." + +She lifted her great eyes to his, a little quizzical expression in them, +as she added: + +"You are surprised that I, a Jewess, should speak thus of the Gentile +scriptures!" + +Then, without giving him time to reply, she went on: + +"But why did you ask whether I knew anything of the New Testament?" + +"Because, apropos of what I said a moment ago, anent the repetition of +History, the Christ of the New Testament declared that "as the days of +Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." + +She nodded her beautiful head, as though she would assent to the +correctness of his quotation. + +"Now I make no profession of being ultra-Christian," he went on, "but I +know the _letter_ of the Bible quite as well as most Teachers of +Christianity, and without intending any egotism I am sure I dare to say +that I know it infinitely better than the average Christian. And if I +was a teacher or preacher of the Christian faith I would raise my voice +most vehemently against the wilful, sinful ignorance of the Bible on the +part of the professed Christians. Members of the various so-called +'churches,' seem to know _every_thing _except_ their Bibles. Mention a +passage in Spenser, William Wordsworth, Whittier, Longfellow, Tennyson, +Browning, or even Swinburne, William Watson, Charles Fox, Carleton, or +Lowell, and they can pick the volume off the shelf in an instant, and the +next instant, they have the book open at your quotation. But quote Jude +or Enoch, or Job on salt with our eggs, and they go fumbling about in the +mazes of Leviticus, or the Minor Prophets." + +He laughed, not maliciously, but with a certain pitying contempt, as he +said: + +"The average _professing_ Christian is about as much like the New +Testament model of what he should be, as is the straw-stuffed scarecrow +in the field, in the pockets of the costume of which the birds conceive +it to be the latest joke to build. But I am digressing, I was beginning +about the 'days of Noah' and their _near_ future repetition on the earth." + +"'_Near repetition_?' How do you mean, Colonel?" Judith Montmarte +leaned a little eagerly toward him. In the ordinary way, alone with a +man of his type she would have played the coquette. To-day she thought +nothing of such trifling. There was something so different in his +manner, as he spoke of the things that were engaging them, to even the +ordinary preacher. + +The pair were as utterly alone as though they had been on the wide, wide +sea together in an open boat. She had said truly, over-night, "no one +ever comes near the library." + +"I mean," he said, replying to her question, "that the seven chief causes +of the apostasy which brought down God's wrath upon the Antediluvians, +have already begun to manifest themselves upon the earth, in such a +measure as to warrant one's saying that 'as it was in the days of Noah, +so it is again today,' and if the New Testament is true in every +letter--we may expect the Return of the Christ at any moment." + +She was staring amazedly at him--enquiring, eager, but evidently puzzled. +But she made no sound or sign of interruption, and he went on: + +"The first element of the Antediluvian apostasy was the worship of God as +Creator and Benefactor, and not as the Jehovah-God of Covenant and Mercy. +And surely that is what we find everywhere to-day. People acknowledge a +Supreme Being, and accept Christ as a model man, but they flatly deny the +Fall, Hereditary Sin, the need of an Atonement, and all else that is +connected with the Great Evangel. The _Second_ cause of Antediluvian +apostasy was the disregard of the original law of marriage, and the +increased prominence of the female sex." + +Judith Montmarte smiled back into his face, as she said: + +"Oh that you would propound that in a convention of New Women! And +yet--yet--yes, you are right, as to your fact, as regards life, to-day." + +The pair had a merry, friendly spar for a moment or two, then, at her +request, he resumed his subject, and, for a full half hour, he amazed her +with his comparisons of the Antediluvian age with the present time. He +was an interesting speaker and she enjoyed the time immensely. But, +presently, when he came to his seventh and last likeness between the two +ages, since it had to do with a curious phase of Spiritism, she became +more intensely interested. + +"There seems to me," he said, "but one correct way of interpreting that +historical item of those strange, Antediluvian days: 'The sons of God saw +the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all +which they chose.' The superficial rendering of this, sometimes given, +that it signifies nothing more than the intermarriage of Cainites and +Sethites, will not suffice when a deeper examination is made in the +original languages. The term 'Sons of God' does not appear to have any +other meaning in the _Old_ Testament, than that of angels. + +"Some of the angels, with Lucifer, fell from their high estate in Heaven, +and were banished from Heaven. Scripture clearly proves in many places +that these fallen ones took up their abode 'in the air,' the Devil +becoming, even as the Christ Himself said: 'Prince of the power of the +air.' + +"Now both Peter and Jude, in their epistles allude to certain of these +fallen, air-dwelling angels, leaving their first estate, and the mention +of their _second_ fall is sufficiently clear to indicate their +sin--intermarriage with the fairest of the daughters of men. Their name +as given in the old Testament, 'Nephilim' means 'fallen ones.' In their +original condition, as angels in Heaven, they 'neither married nor were +given in marriage.' It is too big a subject, Miss Judith ----." + +Hurriedly, eagerly, for she wanted him to continue his topic, she said: + +"Call me Ju, or Judith, or Judy, Colonel, and drop the 'Miss,' and do +please go on with this very wonderful subject." + +"Thank you, Ju," he laughed, then continuing his talk, he said: + +"It is far too big a subject, Ju, in all its details, to talk of here and +now, but, broadly, the fact seems to me to remain, that fallen angels +assumed human shape, or in some way held illicit intercourse with the +women of the day, a race of giant-like beings resulting. For this foul +sin God would seem to have condemned these doubly sinning fallen angels +to Tartarus, to be reserved unto Judgment. + +"'Now as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the +Son of Man,' and----" + +Judith Montmarte caught her breath sharply, and, in an unconscious +movement of eager wonder, let her beautiful hand drop upon his wrist, as +she gasped "you don't think--you don't mean--er--er--, tell me, Colonel, +do you mean to say that--" + +"I do mean," he replied, "that I am firmly convinced that so far has +demonology increased--the door being opened by modern spiritualism--that +I believe this poor old world of ours is beginning to experience a return +of this association between fallen spirits and the daughters of men. Of +course, I cannot enter into minute detail with _you_, Ju, but let me +register my firm conviction, that I believe from some such demoniacal +association, there will spring the 'Man of Sin'--'The Antichrist.'" + +At that instant, to the utter amaze of both of them, the first luncheon +gong sounded. They had been talking for nearly three hours. With the +request from Judith, and a promise from him to resume the subject at the +first favourable opportunity, they parted. + +Intensely, almost feverishly excited, Judith went to her room. Beautiful +in face and form as she was, she was fouler than a Lucretia Borgia, in +soul, in thought. And now, as a foul, wild, mad thought surged through +her brain, she murmured, half-aloud: + +"Demon or man, what matters! If I thought I could be the Mother of The +Antichrist, I would--so much do I hate the Nazarene, the Christ--." + +She spat through the open window as she uttered the precious, though to +her the hated name of the Son of God. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER. + +The huge London church was crowded in every part, and men had been +standing in the aisles from the first moment that the service began. +The preacher who had attracted so huge a crowd at two-thirty on a +weekday afternoon, was one of the very youngest of the "coming men" of +the English church. Tall, thin, with a magnificent head crowned by a +mane of hair that was fast becoming prematurely grey, and a face so +intense in its cast, and set with eyes so piercing, that strangers, not +knowing who he was, would almost inevitably turn to look at him when +they passed him on the street. His career had been a strange one. +Ordained at quite an early age, he had been offered a living within six +months of his ordination. He entered upon his charge, preached but +once only, then met with an accident that laid him low for seven years. +The seven years were fruitful years, since, shut up with God and His +word, he had become almost the most remarkable spiritually-minded Bible +student of his time. + + +The day came, at length, when once more he was strong enough to do +public service, and though without a living, from the moment that he +had preached his first sermon, after his recovery, he found himself in +constant request on every hand. He lived in close communion with God, +and his soul burned within him as he delivered--not an address, not a +sermon, but the _message of God_. The music of the voluntary was +filling all the church, while the offering was being taken. Then, as +the last well-filled plate was piled on the step of the communion rail, +the voluntary died away in a soft whisper. Amid a tense hush, he rose +to give out the hymn before the sermon. Clear, bell-like, his voice +rang out: + +"When I survey the wondrous cross." + +The hymn sung, he gave out his text: "Did not I choose you the twelve, +and one of you _is_ a demon." + +"You will note," he began "that I have changed the word devil to demon. +There is but one devil in the universe, but there are myriads of +demons, fallen angels like their master, the Devil, only they were +angels of lesser rank." + +He paused for one moment, and his eagle eyes swept the sea of faces. +Then in quiet, calm, but incisive tones he asked: + +"Who,--what, was Judas Iscariot? Was he _human_, was he man, as I am, +as you are? or, was he a demon? Jesus Christ our Lord, who knew as +God, as well as man, declared that Judas was a _demon_--a fallen angel." + +The silence was awesome in its tenseness. Every eye was fixed on the +preacher, necks were strained forward, lips were parted--the people +held their breath. + +Again that clear, rich bell-like voice rang out in the repeated +question: "Who, I repeat, was Judas Iscariot? Was he a man, in the +usual acceptance of the term, or was he a demon incarnated? What does +the Bible say about him? In considering this I ask you each to put +from your mind, as far as it is possible for you to do so, all +preconceived ideas, all that you have been accustomed to think about +this flame of evil in the story of Christ. + +"And first let me say what my own feeling, my own strong personal +conviction is regarding Judas Iscariot. I believe him to have been a +demon incarnated by the power of the Devil, whose intent was to +frustrate God's plans. In all his foul work of destruction and +confusion, the Devil, from the time of the Fall in Eden, has ever been +busy counterfeiting all that God has wrought out for the salvation of +the human race, and as the time approaches for his own utter defeat so +the more cunning will his devices of evil become. + +"In the foulness of his thoughts to frustrate God's purposes of +salvation, I believe that when he knew that the Christ had been born, +that God had Himself become incarnate, so that He might deliver +man--for we must never forget that 'God was in Christ reconciling the +world unto Himself--that he, the Devil, incarnated one of his demons, +who afterwards became known as Judas Iscariot, the Betrayer of Christ." + +For one instant the preacher paused, for the awed and listening mass of +people who had been literally holding their breath, were compelled to +inbreathe, and the catch of breath was heard through all the place. + +"To use a twentieth century expression," he went on, "I may seem to +have 'given myself away' by this statement of my own conviction. But I +am not concerned with the effect, I am concerned only with a great and +important truth, as it seems to me, and a truth which will, I believe, +be curiously, fatefully emphasized in the days near to come, when our +Lord shall have taken away His church at His coming in the air. + +"Now let me invite your attention to the actual Scriptures which speak +of Judas Iscariot. But before doing so let me acknowledge my +indebtedness for the inceptive thought of all I have said, and shall +say, to Dr. Joseph A. Seiss, of Philadelphia, in his wondrous lectures +on 'The Revelation.' + +"We will turn first again to my text, to the 6th of John, the 70th +verse, 'Did I not choose you the twelve, and one of you _is_ a devil--a +_demon_? He spake of Judas Iscariot.' The second text I want us to +note is in John 17, verse 12, and again it is Jesus who makes the +solemn declaration: 'Those whom Thou gavest me I have kept, and none of +them is lost, but the _Son of Perdition_.' The third text I would draw +your attention to is in the 25th verse of Acts 1. It is Peter who is +speaking, at the time of the choosing of another as apostle in Judas's +place; he says: 'Judas, by transgression, fell, that he might go _to +his own place_.'" + +In spite of their intentness in the wondrous personality of the +messenger, and the extraordinary character of his message, not a few +found time to marvel at the facile ease and certainty of touch with +which he handled his little pocket Bible, and turned to the desired +places. As he finished reading the third passage, and laid the open +book down upon the desk, the old hush deepened upon the people. + +"Link those three passages together;" he went on, "and you will +instantly see what I meant when I said just now, that I believe Judas +Iscariot to have been an incarnated demon, and incarnated by the Devil +for the one fell purpose of frustrating God's designs for the World's +Salvation through Jesus Christ. + +"There is not a single recorded good thought, word, or deed that ever +Judas thought, said, or did. And do please remember that Christ was +never once deceived by him, for in the 64th verse of that 6th of John, +we read 'For Jesus knew _from the beginning who_ they were that +_believed not_, and _who should betray Him_.' And knowing everything, +he said of the Betrayer, 'I have chosen--he is a demon.' If our Lord +had said 'one of you _has_ a demon,' the whole statement would have +been different, for many, in Christ's days, we find, were possessed by +demons, and He, by His divine power cast out the demons. But in Judas +we have something different, not a human man in whom a demon has taken +up his abode, but a demon who has had a body given him in which to pass +among men as a man. + +"Christ's statement that he was a '_Son of Perdition_,' is equally +damning as to the real nature of Judas Iscariot. He is called the 'son +of Simon,' as regards the human side of his life, as Jesus was called +'Joseph's son,'--more especially _Mary's son_. + +"But, though, nominally, 'Simon's son,' Judas Iscariot was ever 'a Son +of Perdition.' And because he was this--'a demon,' a Son of Perdition, +Peter, at Pentecost time, speaking in the Holy Ghost, was able to say +that he, Judas, 'went to his own place.' We need spend no time in any +detailed arguments as to whether this 'place' to which he went in the +under-world, was Tartarus or elsewhere, it was '_his own place_,' _the +place of imprisoned demons_, the place where other demons who kept not +their first estate, but left their own habitation are reserved in +chains.' Neither Tartarus or Hell were ever 'prepared' for lost +_human_ souls, 'but for demons, and, as a demon, Judas went to his +_own_ place.'" + +He paused a moment. His tall, thin form became rigid in the intensity +of his service. In the silence, that deepened, the ticking of the +clock in the front of the gallery, could be heard plainly in every part +of the building. + +Slowly he bent his lithe form forward until he leaned far over the +Reading Desk. Then stretching out his arm, the long index finger +pointing forward, he said: + +"Listen, friends! Receive this next part of the message, if you will, +if you can. I believe that 'The Man of Sin,' 'The Antichrist,' when he +shall be revealed, will be Judas re-incarnated. + +"There can be no doubt, I think, but that any one studying Daniel's +description of the Anti-christ will realize that, in his _human_ +personation, he will necessarily be a Jew, for otherwise, the Jews (who +will have largely returned to their own land, and will have built their +Temple, and resumed their Mosaic service,) would not accept him as +their leader, and make their seven years' covenant with him. + +"Now, beloved, my last word is a very solemn one. It is this, our +Lord's Return for His Bride, the Church, is very near,--'He is even at +our doors.' Any day, any hour he may return. We, here, may never +reach the point of the 'Benediction' at the _arranged_ close of this +service, for Jesus may come and call up to Himself everyone of His own +in this place. Then what of you here who are not His? For you, there +will remain nothing but the horrors of the Tribulation, (should you +seek and find God _after_ the Translation of the church.) + +"Will you be among the Martyrs of the Tribulation, or of the final +impenitent, rebels who shall be cast into the Hell reserved for the +Devil, for Anti-christ, for the demons; or, blessed thought, will you +here and now yield to Christ, and become the saved of the Lord?" + +Amid the most intense hush, he added: "Somewhere, even as I have +preached of him, and as you have listened, there is, I believe, a young +man, of noble stature, exceedingly attractive, wealthy, +fascinating,--bewitching, in fact, since 'all the world will wonder +after him'--yes, somewhere in the world, perhaps in this very city +where we are now gathered, is the young man who, presently, when our +Lord has come, when the Church, and the Holy Spirit are gone, will +manifest himself as the Anti-christ. May God save everyone of us from +_his_ reign, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen!" + +A gasping cry of amazed wonder broke from the thousand or more throats. +They bowed, as one man, under the silent request of his spread hands, +they heard the old, old "Benediction" as they had never heard it +before: "May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and +the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit, all unite in leading us into the +Peace of God which passeth all understanding, Amen." + +Silent, awed, in many cases speechless, the great congregation passed +out of the several exits of the church. Among them was the woman we +know as Judith Montmarte, and _her son_. + +In spite of their pre-occupation, many of the outgoing congregation +turned to gaze with wondering eyes upon the handsome young fellow who +walked with such a regal air beside his mother, Judith Montmarte. Like +Saul, in Israel, he stood a head and shoulders above the tallest of the +crowd. And he was magnificently proportioned. + +On the continent, and in New York and Chicago, Lucien Apleon, was +well-known, but only in certain of the _English_ circles was he known. +Those who knew him, whether men or women, fairly idolized him, in spite +of the impenetrable mystery that enveloped his birth. + +For a full year Judith Montmarte had disappeared from the ken of the +world. Where she went, what she did, what happened to her, none ever +knew. + +On her re-appearance in her Hungarian home, she called herself Madame +Apleon, and her child was Lucien Apleon. No one ever heard of a +husband, no one knew the history of that year of disappearance. + +Lucien Apleon was now about twenty-five years of age, but with the +maturity of face and character of a much older man. He was accounted, +by all who knew him, to be the most accomplished man in _everything_, +that the world had ever known. The greatest scientists were babes +before him. As artist, sculptor, poet, musician, he could not be +approached by any living being. And there appeared an almost +_creative_ power in all he did, since works of every kind of art _grew_ +under his hand. + +Among those who had been in that service, and who turned to look at +Lucien Apleon, was Ralph Bastin. It was his last day in London, +previous to those years of wandering recorded in "The Twinkling of an +Eye." + +Often during those years of adventurous wanderings the memory of Ralph +Bastin had recalled that wonderful service. One special moment of its +recall was during that fateful, sacrificial cave scene in that +Carribean Island. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +A "SUPER-MAN." + +London was still in its first throes of wonder, speculation, and, in +some cases, fearsome dread, at the ever increasing discovery that a +number of its citizens had mysteriously disappeared. + +"And the most curious part of the whole affair," a prominent London +philanthropist had remarked to an informal gathering of the Committee +of one of the Great Societies, "is this, that whether we look at the +gaps in our own committee, or of any other committee, or of any +church--as far as I have been able to gather, the story is the same, +the missing people are in almost every case those whom, when they were +with us, were least understood by us." + +Some such thought had been filling the mind of Ralph Bastin, as he sat +in his Editor's chair in the office of the "Courier." Allied to this +thought there came another--an almost necessary corollary of the +first--namely the new atmosphere of evil, of lawlessness, of wantonness +that pervaded the city. + +With a jerk, his mind darted backward over the years to that remarkable +sermon on Judas and the Antichrist. + +"It is true, too true," he murmured, "'the mystery of iniquity' that +has long been working undermining the foundations of all true social +and religious safety and solidity, is now to be openly manifested and +perfected. The real Christians, the Church of God, which is the Bride +of Christ, has been silently, secretly caught up to her Lord in the +air. She was 'the salt of the earth,' she kept it from the open +putrefaction that has already, now, begun to work. Then, too, that +wondrous, silent, but mighty influence of restraint upon evil.--The +Holy Spirit, Himself, has left the earth, and now, what? All restraint +gone, the world everywhere open to believe the Antichrist lie, the +delusion. The whole tendency of the teaching, from a myriad pulpits, +during the last few years, has been to prepare the world to receive the +Devil's lie." + +For a moment or two he sat in deep thought. Suddenly glancing at the +clock, he murmured: + +"I wonder what the other papers are saying this evening." + +He rang up his messenger boy on his office phone. The lad came +promptly. Bastin handed him half-a-crown, saying: + +"Get me a copy of the last edition of all the chief evening papers, +Charley, and be smart about it, and perhaps you will keep the change +for your smartness." + +In six minutes the lad was back with a sheaf of papers. Bastin just +glanced at them separately, noting the several times of their issue, +then with a "Good boy, Charley! Keep the change," he unfolded one of +the papers. + +The boy stood hesitatingly, a moment, then said: + +"Beg yer pardin', Mr. Bastin, sir, but wot's yer fink as people's +sayin' 'bout the 'Translation o' the Saints,' as it's called?" + +"I can't say, I am sure, Charley. The careless, and godless have +already said some very foolish things relative to the stupendous event +that has just taken place, and I think, for a few days, they are likely +to say even more foolish things. What is the special one that you have +heard?" + +"Why they sez, sir--its in one o' the _h_eving peepers, they sez--that +the people wot's missin' hev been carted off in aeroplanes by some o' +the other religionists wot wanted to git rid o' them, an' that the +crank religiouses is all gone to----" + +"Where?" smiled Bastin. + +"I don't think anybody knows where, sir!" + +"I do, Charley, and many others to-day, who have been left behind from +that great Translation know--they have been 'caught up' into the air +where Jesus Christ had come from Heaven to summon them to Himself. + +"Mr. Hammond is there, Charley, and that sweet little adopted daughter +of mine, whom you once asked me whether 'angels could be more beautiful +than she was!'" + +"Ah, yus, sir, I recollecks, sir, she wur too bootiful fur words, she +wur." + +There was one moment's pause, then the boy, with a hurried, "it's all +dreadful confuzellin," slipped from the room. + +Ralph Bastin opened paper after paper, glanced with the swift, +comprehensive eye of the practised journalist at here and there a +column or paragraph, and was on the point of tossing the last +news-sheet down with the others, on the floor, when his eye caught the +words, "Joyce, Journalist." + +The paragraph recorded the finding of the body of the drunken +scoundrel. "From the position of the body," the account read, "and +from the nature of the wounds, it would almost seem as though some +infernal power had hurled him, head on, against the wall of the room. +Whether we believe, or disbelieve the statements concerning the taking +away, by some mysterious Translation process, of a number of persons +from our midst, yet the fact remains that each hour is marked by the +finding of some poor dead creature, under circumstances quite as +tragically mysterious as this case of Joyce the reporter." + +For a time Ralph Bastin sat deep in thought. He had not yet written +the article for to-morrow's issue "From the Prophet's chair." He felt +his insufficiency, he realized the need of being God's true witness in +this hour that was ushering in the awful reign of The Antichrist. He +did the _best_ thing, he knelt in prayer, crying: + +"O God, I am so ignorant, teach me, give me Thy wisdom in this +momentous hour. If those who cleave to Thee amid this awful time must +seal their witness with death, must face martyrdom, then let me be +counted worthy to die for Thee. In the old days, before yesterday's +great event, all prayer had to be offered to Thee through Jesus Christ. +I know no other way, please then hear my prayer, and accept it, for +Jesus Christ's sake. Amen." + +Rising from his knees, with a sense of solemn calm pervading all his +soul, he presently took his pen and began to write rapidly, his mind +seeming, to him, to be consciously under the domination of the divine. + +Embodying the various items over which he had so recently mused, as to +the awfulness of the development of evil that would increasingly mark +the near coming days, now that all restraints were taken away, he went +on to show that now that the Devil, who had, for ages, been the Prince +of the Power of the air, with all his foul following of demons, had +been cast down out of that upper realm, where Christ and his translated +saints had taken up their abode, the forces of evil upon the earth +would be magnified and multiplied a million-fold. + +"Christ and the Devil," he went on, "never can dwell in the same realm, +hence the coming of Christ into the air meant the descent to earth, of +the Devil and, with him all the invisible hosts of evil. The wildest, +weirdest imagination could not conceive all the horrors that must come +upon those who presently will refuse to wear the 'Mark of the Beast' +and bow to worship him." + +Suddenly, at this point in his writing, a curious sense of some +presence, other than his own, came over him, and slowly, almost +reluctantly he looked up. + +He started visibly, for, seated in the chair on the opposite side of +his desk, was a visitor. The man was the most magnificent specimen of +the human race he had ever seen, a giant, almost, in stature, handsome +to a degree, and with a certain regal air about him. + +Bastin had involuntarily leaped to his feet, and now stammered: + +"I--er--beg pardon, but I did not hear you come in." + +Even as he spoke two things happened. His mind swept backward over the +years to the day of that wonderful Judas sermon he had heard, and with +this recalled memory there came the recollection of his turning to look +into the face of that magnificent looking young man who had been the +cynosure of all eyes as he left the church with his mother. He was +conscious also of a strange uncanny sense that this smiling handsome +man, with mocking, dancing light in his eyes, was no ordinary man. + +In that same instant, too, Ralph Bastin knew who his visitor was, since +he had become familiarized by the illustrated papers and magazines, +with the features of "The Genius of the Age"--as he was often +styled--Lucien Apleon. + +"My name," said the smiling visitor, "is Lucien Apleon. As editor of a +great journal like the 'Courier,' you know who I am when you know my +name, even though we have never met before. You were so busy, so +absorbed, when I came in that I did not so much as cough to announce my +presence." + +Ralph longed to ask him if he came through the door, or how, since he +had heard no sound. But he did not put his question, but replied: + +"Who has not heard and read of Lucien Apleon, 'The Genius of the Age,' +sage, savant, artist, sculptor, poet, novelist, a giant in intellect, +the Napoleon of commercial capacity, the croesus for wealth, and master +of all courts and diplomacy. But I had not heard that you were in +England, the last news _par'_ of you which I read, gave you as at that +wonderful city, the New Babylon, more wonderful, I hear, than any of +the former cities of its name and site." + +Ralph had talked more than he needed to have done, but he wanted time +to recover his mental balance, for his nerves had been considerably +startled by the suddenness, the uncanniness of his visitor's appearance. + +There was a curious quizzical, mocking look in the eyes of Apleon while +Ralph was speaking. The latter noted it and had an uncomfortable +consciousness that the mocking-eyed visitor was reading him like a book. + +"I only landed to-day," replied Apleon. + +"Steamer?" asked Ralph. + +"No, by a new aerial type of my own invention," replied Apleon. "It +brought me from Babylon to London in about as many minutes as it would +have occupied the best aeronaut, days, by the best machines of a year +ago." + +He laughed. There was a curious sound in the laugh, it was mocking yet +musical, it was eerie yet merry. Involuntarily Ralph thought of +Grieg's "Dance of the Imps," and Auber's overture "Le Domino Noir." + +"But I have not yet explained my object in calling upon you," the +visitor went on. "I have, of course, seen this morning's 'Courier,' +and have been intensely interested, and, will you mind, if I say it, +amused." + +"Amused, Mr. Apleon?" cried Ralph. + +"Yes, intensely amused," went on the mocking-eyed visitor. "I do not +mean with the issue as regards its general contents, it was to the +'Prophet's Chair' column that I alluded." + +Ralph, regarding him questioningly, inclined his head, without speaking. + +"Do you really believe, Mr. Bastin," went on the visitor, "what you +have written in that column? Do you really believe that a certain +section of Christians, out of every one of the visible Evangelical +churches of this land, and elsewhere, have been translated into the +air? That the Holy Spirit of the Christian New Testament, the third +Person of the Trinity, whom that same New Testament declares was sent +to the earth when the Nazarene Christ went home to His Father--please, +note, Mr. Bastin, that I am using the terms of the orthodox Christian, +enough I tell you frankly I do not believe a word of the jumble which, +for nearly two thousand years, has been accepted as a divinely inspired +Revelation to so-called fallen man?" + +"Yes," replied Ralph, and his voice rang with a rare assurance, and +every line of his face held a wondrous nobility. "Yes, I believe it +all. If I had not been a blind, conceited fool of a sinner, a week +ago, I should have known that all this, and much more was true, and I +should have found my way in penitence and faith to the feet of the +Nazarene, of Jesus Christ the World's Redeemer, and, finding pardon for +my sin, as I should have done, I should have been made one of the +Church of God, as my friend, and Editor-in-chief, Tom Hammond, had +done. And, had I listened to him, I should now have been with those +blessed translated ones of whom I have written in that article of which +you speak, Mr. Apleon. + +"I sat in that chair where you now sit," Ralph went en. "Mr. Hammond, +in his eagerness to win me to Christ, leant forward over this desk--he +was sitting where I am--to lay his hand on my wrist, when, with angry +impatience, I leaped to my feet, and declaring that he must be going +out of his head, I swung round on my heel. + +"Instantly there fell upon the room an eerie stillness. I swung back +on my heel to reply to my friend, but his chair was empty, he was +gone--gone to the Christ whom he loved, 'caught up in the air' to meet +his Lord, where all those other missing saints have been taken. + +"Yes, yes, Mr. Apleon, a thousand times yes, to your question, 'do I +believe all that I have written there in that article.' Here in this +little pamphlet--" He laid his hand, as he spoke, upon a small book +that had been Tom Hammond's, which bore the title "THE SECOND COMING OF +OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. Systematically arranged from passages in the +Holy Scriptures, for Students, Teachers, and others. By the Rev. +Robert Middleton." + +"Here, in this little book," he went on, "there is not only set out +with the most luminous clearness, with the actual Bible texts, all that +I have written in that article, but also many other truths and texts +which have already been literally fulfilled during the last forty-eight +hours--even as the book said that they would be." + +With the old mocking, quizzical smile, the handsome Apleon interrupted +him, asking: + +"What do you mean by the _real_ Church of God? The Romish Church, The +Greek Church, The Anglican Church or any one of the multitude of +dissenting churches?" + +It was Ralph's turn to smile now, as he said: + +"None of those churches could be called THE CHURCH OF GOD. The _true_, +the _real_ church was composed of true believers, men and women who had +been born again by the Spirit of God, and who, numbered among every +section of so-called Christians--and some who were wholly +unattached--made up in their wide-world entirety the true Church of +God, the Bride of Christ." + +"And what," asked Apleon, "of the rest, the vast bulk of the +worshippers at the various churches? What is their fate to be?" + +"God only knows!" replied Bastin. "Some, at least, have already +sought, and found God, or believe they have, even as I have sought, and +believe that I have found God. But the vast bulk of the people already +seem to be rollicking in a curious sense of non-restraint. I remember +some years ago, hearing a lady say that visiting the houses of one of +the worst streets in Winchester, and speaking to the people as to their +eternal welfare, she found one woman particularly hardened. To this +woman she said: 'But, my dear sister, think of what it will be to be +eternally lost, to be separated from God, and from all that is pure and +good, for ever, and in a state and place which the Bible calls Hell.' +And the woman laughed, as she said: 'Well, there's one thing, I shall +not be lonely there, for I shall have all my neighbours around me, for +every one in this street is on the same track as me.'" + +A sardonic smile curled the full lips of Apleon, as he said: + +"Poor deluded soul! For if there is such a place as that Hell, that +underworld of lost souls of which your Bible speaks, and declares that +it was prepared for the Devil and his angels, and that woman and her +neighbours find themselves there, they will realize that hell, for its +lost, is the loneliest spot in the universe, since each soul will hate +the other and will live alone, apart in its own hideous realm of +anguish and remorse." + +Lifting his eyes to his visitor's face, as the latter delivered himself +to this strange speech, Bastin was startled to note the expression on +the handsome face. The eyes, unutterably sad for one instant, turned +suddenly to savage hate, the mouth was as cruel as death, the eyes grew +baleful, like the eyes of a snake that is being whipped to death. + +He was startled even more by the tones of his voice when he said: + +"And what of the Anti-christ of whom you have spoken and written? Do +you believe what you have written?" + +"I most certainly do," replied Ralph. + +Again the sardonic smile filled all Apleon's face as he returned: + +"Then if all that you say and write be true, as regards the coming +Anti-christ, and you continue to wear the late editor's mantle when you +write 'The Prophet's chair' articles, how long do you suppose that that +powerful _super_-man, the Anti-christ of your belief, will let you +alone. If he is to be so powerful, and if the devil is to energize +him, as you say;--even as you profess to believe that he has called +into being--is now actually dwelling on the earth, though invisible, +and all his angels (demons, I believe they are called in the Bible) are +moving about invisibly among the people on the earth, among the people +of this wonderful London, if all this, I say, be so, how long do you +suppose you will be allowed, by his Satanic Majesty, to ply your trade +of warner of the peoples? Why, man, your life is not worth the snap of +a finger?" + +Ralph smiled. The smile transfigured his face, even as the same sort +of smile transfigured the faces of the martyrs of old time, beginning +with Stephen. + +"I care not how long I live," he replied. "The only care I have now is +to be true to my convictions, true to my God." + +The telephone rang at that instant. "Excuse me one moment, Mr. +Apleon," he said, turning to the instrument. + +There followed a few moments exchanges on the 'phone, then replacing +the receiver he turned. But his visitor was gone. + +"That's curious!" he muttered. "I did not hear a sound of his going, +any more than I did of his coming. Uncanny, eerie, creepy, almost!" + +There was a tap at the door. "Come in!" he called. The messenger boy, +Charley, entered with a sheaf of proof galleys. + +"Did you see that tall gentleman pass out, Charley?" he asked. "Did he +go down stairs, or into one of the other offices?" + +"Tall gennelman, sir? There aint bin no one come along this way, sir, +nobody couldn't pass my little hutch wivout me a seein' on 'em. I +ain't been out no wheres, an' I knows no one aint come by--least ways, +not this way, not past my place." + +"If any tall gentleman does come up, Charley, show him in to me, at +once please." + +Ralph had had time, during Charley's extended answer, to recover +himself from the amaze that the boy's first sentence has produced in +him. + +"That's all, Charley!" he added, turning to his desk. + +The boy gave him a curious, puzzled look, lingered for the fraction of +a second, then slowly turned and left the office. + +When the door had closed behind him, Ralph, who had _felt_ all that had +passed in that moment of the boy's hesitancy, though he had purposely +refrained from looking up, lifted his head and glanced around him. + +"If I did not know better," he murmured, "I should suppose that the +whole incident was but a dream, or hallucination." + +A perplexed look filled his face, as he continued: + +"What does it all mean?" + +Again, in a flash, the memory of that Judas sermon swept back over him, +and the startling statement recurred to him "Somewhere, even as I have +preached of him, and as you have listened, there is, I believe, a young +man of noble stature, exceedingly attractive, wealthy, fascinating, +bewitching in fact, since 'all the world will wonder after him'--yes, +somewhere in the world, perhaps in this very city where we are now +gathered, is the young man who, presently, when our Lord has come, when +the Church, and the Holy Spirit are gone, will manifest himself as the +Anti-christ." + +Coming back at this particular moment, Ralph asked himself: "Is Lucien +Apleon the Anti-christ?" + +He paused an instant, then, as a sudden startling sense of assurance of +the fact swept into his soul he cried: + +"He is! I have seen the Anti-christ!" + +For nearly an hour he sat on his chair, his mind wrapped in deep +thought, and occasionally referring to a book of prophecy which Tom +Hammond had evidently deeply studied. + +At the end of the hour, he bowed his head upon his hands, and held +silent communion with God, seeking wisdom to write and speak and live +the Truth. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +"TO THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL" + +The next day was Sunday. It was also the first Sunday of the month. +As he bathed and dressed, Ralph found himself wondering whether the +churches and chapels would be filled, whether the awe and fear that had +fallen upon so many Christian professors during the first hours after +the "Rapture," would drive them to the churches. + +"The first of the month," he mused. "The Lord's Supper has been the +order of the day in most places. I wonder if it will be celebrated +to-day?" + +"_Until He come_!" he mused on. "He _has_ come, so that the Lord's +Supper, as part of the worship of the churches is concerned, can have +no further meaning. Will any attempt be made to celebrate it, to-day, +I wonder?" + +Every available moment of the fateful week that had just passed he had +occupied in deep reading the prophetic scriptures referring to The +Coming of the Lord, and the events which follow. He had also studied +deeply every book on the subject which he could secure, that was likely +to help him to understand the position of affairs. Again and again, he +had said to himself: "How could I have been such a fool? a journalist, +a bookman, a lover of research, professing to have the open mind which +should be the condition of every man of my trade, and yet never to have +studied my Bible, never to have sought to know what all the startling +events of the past decade, pointed to. Surely, surely, Tom Carlyle was +right about we British--'mostly fools.'" + +At breakfast he ate and drank only sufficient to satisfy the sense of +need. Previous to "The Rapture" he had been a bit of an Epicure, now +he scarcely noted what he ate or drank. + +Almost directly his meal was finished, he left the house. The +journalistic instinct was strong enough within him to make him desire +to see what changes, if any, would be apparent in London on this first +Sunday after the momentous event that had so recently come upon the +world. + +Turning out of the quiet square where his lodgings were, he was +instantly struck by a new tone in the streets. There was an utter +absence of the old-time "Sabbath" sense. + +The gutterways were already lined with fruit and other hawkers, their +coarse voices, crying their wares, making hideous what should have been +a Sunday quiet. + +It was barely ten, yet already many of the Tea Rooms were open, and +most of them seemed thronged, whole families, and pleasure-parties +taking breakfast, evidently. + +He passed a large and popular theatre, across the whole front of which +was a huge, hand-painted announcement, "Matinee at 2, this afternoon. +Performance to-night 7-45. New Topical song entitled "The Rapture," on +the great event of the week. Living Pictures at both performances: +"The Flight of the Saints." + +Ralph, in his amaze, had paused to read the full contents of the +announcement. He shuddered as he took in the full import of the +blasphemy. Surveying the crowd that stood around the notice, he was +struck by the composition of the little mob. It was anything but a +low-class crowd. Many of them were evidently of the upper middle +class, well-dressed, and often intellectual-looking people. + +He was turning to leave the spot, when a horsey-looking young fellow +close to him, in a voice loud enough to be heard by the whole crowd--he +evidently meant that it should--cried: + +"Well, if it's true that all the long-faced puritans have been carted +off, vamoused, kidnapped, "Rapturized," as they call it, and that now +there's to be no Theatre Censor, and every one can do as they like, +well then, good riddance to the kill-joys, I say." + +"And so say all of us," sang a voice, almost everyone present joining +in the song. + +When twenty yards off Ralph could hear the blasphemy ringing out "The +Devil's a jolly good fellow, and so say all of us!" + +"What will London be like in a month's time!" he mused. + +He moved on quickly, but even as he went the thought thrust itself upon +him, that half London, for some reason or the other, was abroad in the +streets unusually early. His own objective was a great Nonconformist +church, where one of London's most popular and remarkable preachers had +ministered. He had been one of the comparatively few whose ministry +had been characterized by a close adherence to the Word of God, and an +occasional solemn word of expository warning and exhortation _anent_ +the "Coming of the Lord." + +Ralph was within a stone's throw of the great building when the +squeaking tones of Punchinello, reached his ears, while a deep roar of +many laughing voices accompanied the squeakings. A moment more and he +was abreast of a crowd of many hundreds of people gathered around the +Punch and Judy show. + +Sick in soul at all that told of open blasphemy everywhere around him, +he hurried on, not so much as casting an eye at the show, though it was +impossible for him to miss the question and answer that rang out from +the show. + +"Now, now Mr. Punch, where's your poor wife? Have you done away with +her?" + +"No," screamed the hook-nosed puppet, "Not me, I aint done away with +her, she done away with herself, she's gone and got 'Rapturized.'" + +Then, above the ribald laughter of the crowd, the squeaking puppet sang: + + "Oh, p'raps she is, p'raps she aint, + An' p'raps she's gone to sea, + Or p'raps she's gone to Brigham Young + A Mormonite to be." + + +Ralph shivered as with chill, as he went up the steps of the great +church to which he had been aiming. It was filling fast. Five minutes +after he entered, the doors had to be closed, there was not even +standing room. + +He swept the huge densely-packed building with his keen eyes. Many +present were evidently accustomed to gather there, though the bulk were +curious strangers. A strange hush was upon the people, a +half-frightened look upon many faces, and a general air of suspense. + +Once, someone in the gallery cracked a nut. The sound was almost as +startling as a pistol shot, and hundreds of faces were turned in the +direction of the sound. + +Ralph noticed that the Communion table, on the lower platform under the +rostrum was covered with white, and evidently arranged as for the +Lord's Supper. + +Exactly at eleven, someone emerged from a vestry and passed up the +rostrum stairs. A moment later the man was standing at the desk. Many +instantly recognized him. It was the Secretary of the Church. + +A dead hush fell upon the people. + +The face of the man was deathly pale, his eyes were dull and sunken. +Twice his lips parted and he essayed to speak, but no sound escaped +him. The hush deepened. + +Then, at last, low and husky came the words "My dear friends--for I +recognize some who have been wont to gather here on the Sundays, though +the majority are strangers, I think." + +His eyes slowly swept the great congregation. "We have, I believe, +many of us, gathered here this morning more by a new, strange, common +instinct, than by mere force of Sunday habit. Yet, I cannot but think +that many of us, solemnized by the events that have transpired since +last Sunday, have met more in the Spirit of real seeking after God than +ever we have done before." + +A few voices joined in a murmur of assent, but something like a ripple +of mocking laughter came from others. And one voice in the gallery +laughed outright--it was the man who had cracked the nut. + +Momentarily unnerved by that laughter the speaker paused. Then +recovering himself he went on: + +"Our pastor has gone; the Puritans (as we were wont to call them) are +gone; and we know now--now that it is too late for those of us who are +'left'--that they have been 'caught up' into the air, to be with their +Lord forever." + +He glanced down at the white-draped communion table, as he continued: + +"Our church officer has performed his usual monthly office, and has +spread the Table for the Lord's Supper, but it dawns upon us, friends, +how useless, how empty is the symbol since it was only ordained 'until +He should come.' He has come, and we, the unready, have been left +behind." + +"Tommy Rot!" + +The expression came angrily, sneeringly from the man in the gallery, +the man who cracked that nut, and who had laughed so boisterously a +moment ago. + +Many eyes were turned up to the man, but no voice of reprimand came, no +cry of "shame!" or of "Turn him out," was raised. + +All that had happened during the days of the past week, had served to +fill many of the people gathered there that morning, with a curious +mingling of doubt, hesitancy, fearsomeness, and uncertainty, as well as +an unconscious growth of a new strange skepticism, and a carelessness +that almost amounted to recklessness. + +"As it is with many more here, this morning," the Secretary went on, +"some members of my family have gone, been caught up--" + +"Aviated!" laughed a ribald voice, and this time it came from another +part of the building. + +Disregarding the interruption, the secretary went on: + +"My wife has gone--" His voice shook with the deep emotion that +stirred him, and for a moment he was too moved to speak. Then +recovering himself with an effort he continued: + +"My daughter, too, who against my wish had offered herself as a Foreign +Missionary, has gone. Both wife and daughter lived in the spirit of +expectancy of the Coming of Christ into the air. Now they are with +Him, to be with Him for ever." + +The ribald voice that had last interrupted, again broke into the +Secretary's touching words. This time the interrupter roared out a +stanza or two of a wretched song: + + "Will no one tell me where they're gone, + My bursting heart with grief is torn, + I wish I never had been born, + I've lost, I've lost my vife." + + +A hundred or more voices roared with laughter. The devil of blasphemy +was growing bolder. + +But in the silence that immediately followed the laughter, the +Secretary went on again: + +"I have been a deeply _religious_ man, even as Nicodemus and Paul were, +before their conversion. But now that it is too late to share in the +bliss of the glorious Translation, I have discovered that Religion, +without Christ, without the Regeneration of the New Birth, is evidently +useless, otherwise, I, with scores of others in this church, this +morning, who have, for years, listened to a full-orbed gospel from our +God-filled translated pastor, would be now with those of our loved ones +who have 'ascended up on high.'" + +He paused for the briefest fraction of a second, a look of keenest +anguish filled his face, his eyes grew moist with unshed tears, and +were full of appeal, of enquiry, as he swept the great assembly, crying: + +"There must be thousands upon thousands left in our land, who, like +myself, deceived themselves, and thus, unwittingly deceived others, and +in whose souls there rises the cry: 'How can we find God? Who will +show us the way?' + +"Friends, I have searched my New Testament from end to end. I have +been up two whole nights, and I have read the New Testament through +from Matthew to Revelation, twice. But I can find no provision for the +position I find myself in. I can find no guidance as to how to be +saved. The whole situation is too solemn, too awful for any fooling. +Does anyone here know? Can anyone here tell us how we may find God, +now that the salt of the earth--the real Christians are gone, and now, +too, that the Holy Spirit who, of old time--not yet a full week, but it +seems an eternity--led souls to God through Christ." + +There was something so solemn, so pathetic in the man's manner and +utterance, that even the ribald fools who had previously interrupted, +were silent. + +The hush was intense. The ticking of the clock could be heard +distinctly. + +Impelled by a power which he could not have defined or described, Ralph +Bastin rose to his feet. + +The hush deepened. Then a voice broke the silence, crying: + +"Bastin, editor of 'The Courier'!" + +He was very pale, but the light of a rare courage flashed in his eyes. +He acknowledged the recognition of himself by an inclination of the +head. Then amid a strange hush he began to speak, his voice husky, at +first, rapidly clearing as he went on: + +"Friends, I take it that this is the most momentous Sunday that has +ever been, since the first one--the day of the resurrection of the +Christ. Our friend who has just spoken has surely voiced the question +of many hearts here this morning, and many other troubled hearts the +wide world over. + +"Let me say, right here, that my friend and colleague, Mr. Tom Hammond, +the originator and late editor of 'The Courier,' was in the very act of +explaining the wonderful, expected return of Christ (expected by him +though scoffed at by myself) when he was 'caught up' from my very +presence, and then I knew what a fool I had been to neglect God and His +salvation." + +The nut-cracking interrupter in the gallery, with a burst of laughter, +began mockingly to sing the old revival chorus, "Come to Jesus, come to +Jesus, come to Jesus, just now, just----" + +"Silence! you blasphemous, ribald fool!" The words leaped from the +lips of Ralph Bastin, in a tone of command that literally awed the +interrupter. The effect, too, upon the hesitating, vacillating mass of +people was, for the moment at least, to arouse their sympathy with +Ralph, and a little murmur of applause followed. + +At the same time a soldier in uniform, a man of giant proportions, who +was sitting almost immediately behind the disturber, rose in his seat, +and addressing the man in front of him, cried, in a stentorian voice: + +"See here, mouthy, we're about fed up with your gas, so if you give us +so much as one wag of that cursed red rag of yours, I'll pick you up +and snap you in half across my knee, as I would snap a stick." + +This time the applause broke out all over the crowded church. When it +ceased, Ralph standing straight as a larch, and looking up at the +soldier, gave a military salute, as he said: "Thank you, brave soldier." + +Coming back to his audience, he went on, as if there had been no +interruption: + +"I, too, like the gentleman who addressed us just now, have read the +whole of the Bible through, and the New Testament _twice_, and I can +find no _definite_ provision or Revelation for those who are left +behind--that is as to the _how_, I mean, of salvation. Yet that there +are to be many saved during the next seven years, is evident, since +there is to be a great multitude come out of _The Great Tribulation_, +and thousands of these will be martyrs for God, refusing to wear the +Mark of the Beast. + +"In one of the pamphlets I have been studying on 'The second coming of +the Lord,' I have found this statement, that Christ, during His +ministry, preached the Gospel _of the Kingdom_, which is explained as +referring to the fact that, as a Jew, as the Messiah, He came to His +own people the Jews, the chosen _earthly_ people of God, and that if +they would have accepted Him as their Messiah, His Kingdom--with +Himself reigning as King--might have been set up there and then. But +they rejected Him, yes, even when Peter, at Pentecost, after the +Ascension of Christ, made the final offer in those wonderful words of +his. + +"As a nation, they rejected Him, rejected their Lord and King, and +henceforth, until He should come again. (He came last week, as we +know, now that it is too late for us to share in the glory of that +coming.) Until that coming, as I said, the Gospel to be preached was +to be the 'Gospel of the Grace of God,' and not the 'Gospel of the +Kingdom.' 'The Gospel of the Grace of God,' included all peoples, +Gentile as well as Jew, while 'the Gospel of the Kingdom,' in its first +preaching, was especially a message to the Jew. + +"Now, friends, since there appears to be no _special_ Revelation left +as to how men and women are to be saved, I have been forced to the +conclusion that we must go back to the Old Testament word: 'Seek ye the +Lord'--'Call upon the Name of the Lord'--'Trust ye in the Lord'--'Come +now and let us reason, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, +they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they +shall be as wool.' 'The Lord is nigh unto them who are of broken +heart, and _saveth_ such as be of a _Contrite_ spirit.' + +"I have taken my own stand upon this, that God, the God of the Old +Testament, is the same God, who pities like a father, and that if we +confess our sin, and witness a true confession, He will forgive us our +sin, and though we can never be part of that wondrous _Bride_ of +Christ, whom, last week He caught up to Himself into the Heavenlies, +yet we may be eternally saved. And, friends, whether I am right or +wrong, I am daily pleading the Name of Jesus Christ in all my +approaches to God. I plead the Blood of Jesus Christ, and the power of +that Blood, to save me; for, as far as I understand myself, in this +matter, my belief, my trust is the same as that which inspired the +saints who were translated at the 'Rapture'--as that event has come to +be called. + +"In my studies during the past week--would God I had been wise, and +given myself to all this a month ago, I should then have shared in the +glory of that Rapturous event of which all our minds are so full. + +"But, as I was saying, in my studies during the past week, I have seen +that in Revelation Seven, in the account of those who are to be saved +_during_ the seven years of the present dispensation, (and which has +just begun) that they 'have washed their robes and made them white _in +the blood of the Lamb_.' So that though I am not able to reduce my +standing to an actual theological position--statement--yet I pin my +soul, my faith on the Eternal character of God, and on the efficacy of +the Blood of Jesus, as shown in Revelation Seven, fourteen." + +He paused for an instant, and his eyes swept the great assembly +sorrowfully, sadly, as he went on: + +"But it is forced upon me that what is done by us, in this matter of +seeking God, must be done by us _now, at once_. Every hour increases +the danger of delay because the powers of evil, of the Antichrist, are +already growing more and more rampant, more and more pronounced. +Presently, friends, we know not but that any hour or even moment now, +the awful delusion of the Antichrist lie, may be actually formulated +into speech and print, and it will be so almost universally absorbed by +mankind, and its influence be so pervading, so saturating, in every +class, of society, that it will every hour become harder, more +difficult for the individual soul to turn to God." + +He paused again for one instant. Then startlingly, suddenly, the words +"Great God!" leaped from his lips. They sounded like a mighty sob. + +"Great God!" he repeated with an anguish that awed the people. "The +great mass of people in London, are already mocking God. They laugh at +the notion of there being a God, of there being any Retribution. The +great mass of the people are ripe for anything, even for a public, +official denial of the very existence of God. Deluded, they will +believe any lie, THE FOUL LIE. + +"How long is it since, in France, in the Revolution, the leading men, +the 'flower' of that capricious nation, carried in triumph in grand +procession the most beautiful harlot of Paris, to the Cathedral of +Notre Dame, and, unveiling and kissing her before the high altar, +proclaimed her as the 'Goddess of Reason,' exhorting the multitude of +people to forget all the childish things that they had been taught as +to the thunders of the wrath of God, for God was not, and had never +been. + +"And all that happened while the 'salt of the earth,' was abroad, and +while that great, divine restrainer of evil, the Holy Spirit, the third +Person of the Trinity, was still upon the earth exercising His +restraint. + +"And, in a week from to-day, I believe it will be absolutely impossible +to get a gathering like this. The world, the Flesh, the Devil, the +Antichrist, will have almost absolute sway, and if any of us will live +to God, we must be prepared to suffer the direst persecution, and all +the horrors of the Great Tribulation, with its thousands of martyrs, +will be the portion of those who will cleave to God, and flout +Antichrist." + +A deep, sullen growl, like that of some huge savage beast, rose here +and there from a number of dissenters to these predictions. + +Ralph lifted his head proudly, and fearlessly for his God, as he cried: + +"There rises the first growl of the slumbering demon of Antichrist, +which, only too soon, shall possess almost the whole world. Soon, a +year, or two, less than that, doubtless. Antichrist will dominate the +earth's peoples. None will be able to trade, to buy or sell, unless +they bear on their forehead or their _right_ hand, the Mark of the +Beast. What will that mark be? I cannot tell. I do not know, no one +save Antichrist, and the Devil who has incarnated him, can as yet know, +I think." + +Again that growl rose from the throats of some of the listeners. This +time it was deeper, fuller more voices joined in it, and the savage +note was more pronounced. + +Suddenly, a mighty roar of thousands of voices, mingled with the blare +of brass instruments penetrated into the building from the street. +There followed, instantly, a general rising to their feet, and a rush +of the people to the exits. The crush at the exits was terrible. +Screams of women mingled with the hoarse cursings of men--men who had +never uttered an oath before, found their mouth filled with hideous, +blasphemous oaths. It was as if the very devil himself had suddenly +possessed the crowd. + +Ralph found himself alongside the Secretary of the church, the man who +had preceded him in speaking. The pair watched and listened for a +moment while noisily, slowly, painfully the people passed out of the +building. + +Involuntarily there sprang to Ralph's lips, and, before he realized it, +he was uttering the words: + +"The whole herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and was +choked." + +The two men were strangers, yet as they turned and faced each other, by +some common impulse they clasped hands. For one instant it looked as +though each would have spoken. Then, as though some strange power had +tied their tongues, they moved on silently, side by side, down the wide +aisle of the church, and passed out through the entrance doors of the +now empty building. + +The streets were filled with surging masses of people, and there was a +glare of ruddy flames, while dense volumes of smoke poured into the +upper air from the first of two huge cars drawn by hundreds of excited +men, boys, and even women and girls. + +In the center of the platform of the first car was a huge, altar-like +construction in polished iron or steel. The center of the altar was +evidently a deep hollow cauldron, into which a score of men, costumed +as satyrs, were pitchforking Bibles. The four sides of the +Altar-cauldron had open bars, so that, fanned on every side by the +double draught of the car's motion, and the fairly stiff breeze that +was blowing, the furnace roared fiercely, fed, as it incessantly was by +the copies of God's Word. + +Hundreds of wildly-excited men and women--many seemed +semi-drunken--attired in every conceivable grotesqueness of costume, +and forming a kind of open-air fancy-dress ball, disported themselves +shamelessly about the cauldron car, and the triumphal car that followed +in its wake. + +The latter was a gorgeous structure, finished in gold, purple, and +imitation white marble. Its center was a kind of _tableaux vivant_. +On one side was an effigy of a parsonic kind of man, crucified head +downwards upon a cross. A second side showed a theatre front with a +staring announcement "_seven_ day performances." A third side showed a +figure of "Bacchus" crowned with vine-leaves and grape-bunches. A +fourth side showed an entrance to a Law Court, with an announcement: +"Closed Eternally, for since there is no marriage, there is no divorce." + +Above all this was a golden throne, and in a deep purple-plush-covered +chair sat a florid, coarsely-beautiful woman, with long hair of golden +hue hanging down upon her shoulders and blowing in the breeze. She was +literally naked, save for a ruffle of pink muslin about her waist. +Upon her head was a crown, in her right hand she held a gilded crozier. + +The most wanton, hideous licentiousness was the order of the hour among +the mob of fancy-costumed people. + +Ralph Bastin and his companion followed in the wake of the foaming, +raging sea of semi-mad people. + +"The French Revolution business over again," said Ralph--he had to +shout into his friend's ear to be heard. + +His companion nodded an assent, then bawled back: + +"Whither are they bound, I wonder?" + +Ralph pointed to a banner bearing the inscription. "To St. Pauls." + +The procession swept on, and seven minutes later the cars were rounded +up in front of the open space before the Cathedral. + +A score of policemen had managed to muster on the upper step of the +flight. But the rush of the mob was irresistible. They took entire +possession of the steps and all the open space around even to the head +of Ludgate Hill. + +Ralph had got separated from his companion, and found himself swept +close up to the great triumphal car. Above him seated smilingly on her +purple throne, in all her shameless nakedness, was the beautiful form +of the foul souled harlot. Her gilded crozier was upheld between her +naked knees, and now, in her right hand she held a goblet of champagne, +just passed up to her. + +A bugle sounded for silence. The hush was instantaneous. Then as she +held the goblet high aloft, her clear, shrill voice rang out in the +toast she gave: + +"To the World, the Flesh, and the Devil!" + +She drained the sparkling draught, and tossed the goblet down into the +upraised hand of a handsome, but dissolute-looking man, who, attired in +the theatrical idea of Mephistopheles, appeared to be a kind of Master +of Ceremonies. + +A mighty roar of applause, mingled with cries of "Dolly Durden! Dear +little Dolly Durden!" accompanied the drinking of the toast. + +Again the bugle rang out for silence, and amid a hush as before, +Mephistopheles shouted: + +"The Sunday of the Puritans is dead and _damned_! Their Bible is +burned and a dead letter!" + +He pointed, as he uttered the last sentence, to the Satyrs who were +piling the last of their stock of Bibles into the fiery furnace of the +cauldron-altar. + +His blasphemies were greeted with a roar of applause. Then, as he +obtained a comparative silence by the raising of his hand, he yelled: + +"To Hyde Park." + +The band struck up "Good St. Anthony," and the monster procession, +swept down Ludgate Hill, hundreds of throats belching out the words of +the song, to the music of the band: + + "St. Anthony sat on a lowly stool, + A large black book he held in his hand, + Never his eyes from the page he took, + With steadfast soul the page he scanned. + The Devil was in his best humour that day, + That ever his Highness was known to be in,-- + That's why he sent out his imps to play + With sulphur, and tar, and pitch, and resin: + They came to the saint in a motley crew, + Twisted and twirl'd themselves about,-- + Imps of every shape and hue, + A devilish, strange, and rum-looking rout. + Yet the good St. Anthony kept his eyes + So firmly fixed upon his book, + Shouts nor laughter, sighs nor cries, + Never could win away his look." + + +Verse after verse belched forth from the now more or less raucous +throats of the blasphemous mob, until, with unholy unctiousness, +reaching the last verse but one, they screamed laughingly, vilely: + + "A thing with horny eyes was there-- + With horny eyes just like the dead, + While fish-bones grew instead of hair + Upon his bald and skinless head. + Last came an imp--how unlike the rest,-- + A lovely-looking female form, + And while with a whisper his cheek she press'd, + Her lips felt downy, soft, and warm; + As over his shoulder she bent, the light + Of her brilliant eyes upon his page + Soon filled his soul with mild delight, + And the good old chap forgot his age. + And the good St. Anthony boggled his eyes + So quickly o'er his old black book,-- + Ho! Ho! at the corners they 'gan to rise, + And he couldn't choose but have a look. + + "There are many devils that walk this world, + Devils so meagre and devils so stout, + Devils that go with their tails uncurl'd, + Devils with horns and devils without. + Serious devils, laughing devils, + Devils black and devils white, + Devils uncouth, and devils polite. + Devils for churches, devils for revels, + Devils with feathers, devils with scales, + Devils with blue and warty skins, + Devils with claws like iron nails, + Devils with fishes' gills and fins; + Devils foolish, devils wise, + Devils great, and devils small,-- + But a laughing woman with two bright eyes + Proves to be the worst devil of them all." + + +It was all of Hell, Hellish, and should have proved conclusively, it +proof had been desired, that with the translation of the Church, and +the flight of the Holy Spirit, the last restraint upon man's natural +love of lawlessness had been taken away. + +Sweeping westwards, the hideous, blasphemous procession was continually +augmented by crowds that swarmed up from side-streets, and fell-in in +the rear of the marching throng. + +Somewhere on the route, owing to a kind of backwash of the surging +people, Ralph Bastin and the Secretary of the Church had become +separated. At Picadilly circus they came suddenly face to face again. + +"What is this foul, blasphemous movement? What does it mean?" asked +the Secretary. "Is this a beginning of _organized_ lawlessness on the +part of the Anti-christ?" + +"I think not," replied Ralph. "I should rather say that it was a bit +of wanton outrage of all the decencies of ordinary life, and arranged +by some of the rude fellows--male and female--of the baser sort. You +noticed, of course, that most of those immediately connected with the +two cars, looked like the drinking, smoking, sporting fellows who are +the _habitues_ of the music-halls and the promenades of the theatres." + +An uproarious cheering of the mighty throng interrupted Ralph for a +moment. Only those well to the front of the procession could know the +cause of the cheering, but the whole mass of people joined in it. As +the roar died away, Ralph Bastin took up the broken thread of his reply: + +"Yet, for all I have just said, I feel it in my bones as Mrs. Beecher +Stowe's old negress 'mammy' used to say, that this foul demonstration +on this golden Sunday morning, is the unauthorized unofficial beginning +of the Anti-christ movement." + +There was a couple of hundred yards between the tail of the actual +procession, and Ralph and his companion. Hundreds of people thronged +the sidewalks, but the road was fairly clear, and along the gutter-way +there swept a gang of boys with coarse, raucous laughter, +kicking--football fashion--two or three of the half-burned Bibles that +had fallen from the cauldron-altar on the car. + +The church Secretary visibly shuddered at the sacrilege. A pained look +shot into Ralph Bastin's face, as he said: + +"Such wanton, open sacrilege as that could only have become possible by +the gradual decay of reverence for the word of God, brought about +largely by the so-called 'Higher critics' of the last thirty years, the +men who broke Spurgeon's heart, the Issachars of the nineteenth and +early twentieth century, those 'knowing ones' who, like Issachar, +thought that they knew better than God." + +The two men walked on together in deep talk. Ralph learned that his +companion was Robert J. Baring, principal of the great shipping firm, +and of merchants and importers. + +Baring was an educated man, and of considerable culture, and Ralph and +he found that they had very much in common. But that which perhaps +constituted the closest tie between them was the fact that both had +lost their nearest and dearest, and were _left_ to face the coming +horrors of the Anti-christ reign, and the hideousness of the great +Tribulation. + +"God grant," Ralph said once, as they talked, "that when the moment +comes, as come it will, that we are called upon to stand for God, or +die for Him, that we may witness a good confession." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +FORESHADOWINGS. + +A month had elapsed since the translation of the church. A new order +in everything had arisen--Religious, Governmental, Social. The spirit +of lawlessness grew fiercer and fouler each day, it is true, yet there +was a supreme authority, a governmental restriction, that prevented the +fouler, the more destructive passions of the baser kind of men and +women, having full scope. + +A curious kind of religion had been set up in many of the churches. +The services were sensuous to a degree, and were a strange mixture of +Romanism, Spiritism (demonology,) Theosophy, Materialism, and other +kindred cults. Almost every week some new ode or hymn was produced, +every sentiment of which was an applauding of man, for God was utterly +ignored, and the key-note of the Harvard college "class Poem," for the +year 1908, became the key-note of the Sunday Song of the "worshippers" +in the churches: + + "_No_ God for a gift God gave us-- + MANKIND ALONE must save us." + + +It was a curious situation, since it was "man" worshipping himself. +Presently, the centre of worship would shift from man, to _The_ Man of +Sin--the Anti-christ. + +These religious services were held, as a rule, from twelve-thirty to +one-fifteen on the Sunday once a day only, (without any week-night +meetings.) They were held at an hour when, in the old-days, the +congregations would have been home, or going home, from their services. +But this arranged lateness was due to the fact, that there had grown up +in all sections of society an ever-increasing lateness of retiring at +night, coupled with a growth of indolence caused by every kind of +sensual indulgence, not the least of which was gluttony. Music of a +sensuous, voluptuous character formed a chief part of the brief Sunday +services, and every item was loudly applauded as though the whole +affair had been a performance rather than a professedly religious +service. + +Most of the interior arrangements in many of the old places of worship +had been altered. The theatre style of thing--plush-covered tip seats, +etc.--had taken the place of the old pews and the wooden seats. In +many of these Sunday services, too, people of both sexes smoked at +will--for smoking among women had become almost universal. + +There were no Bibles, or Hymn books, the odes, etc., were printed on +double sheets, after the fashion of theatre programmes, and, like them, +contained numerous advertisements of the Sunday matinees and evening +performances at the theatres, music-halls, etc. + +All this had been brought about much more easily than would at first +appear, until we remember one or two factors that had long been working +silently, subtly among the attendants--mere church professors--of the +various places of worship, such as, the insistance on shorter services, +and fewer--for long, before the Rapture, the unspiritual had clamoured +for a _single_ service of the week, that of a late Sunday morning one. +Then for years, religious services (those of the Sunday) had grown more +and more sensuous, unspiritual. Every real _spiritual_ doctrine had +first been denied, then expunged from the _essay_ that had largely +taken the place of the old-time sermon. Again, all spiritual +restraints had now been taken away--the true believers, the Holy +Spirit, every spiritually-minded, born-again pastor and clergyman. + +The new Religion (it could not be called a Faith) was a universal one. +The powers of the Priest-craft had invented a religion of the Flesh, +fleshy to a degree. Every type of indulgence was permissible, so that +men everywhere gloried in their religion, "having a form--but denying +God." + +The performances at all theatres, music-halls, etc., had grown rapidly +worse and worse, in character,--licentiousness, animalism, +voluptuousness, debauchery, these were the main features of the newer +type of performances. Salome dances, and even the wildest, obscenest +type of the "_can-can_" of the French, in its most promiscuous +lascivious forms, were common fare on the varied English stages. + +But if the stage was filthy and indecent, what could be said of the +books! There was not a foulness or obscenity and indecency that was +not openly, shamelessly treated in the bluntest of phraseology. +Thousands of penny, two-penny, and three-penny editions of utter +obscenity were issued daily. And the vitiated taste of the great mass +of the people grew voraciously by feeding upon them. + +Marriage was a thing of the dead past. There had been a growth of +foul, subtle, hideous teaching _before_ the translation of the church. +Marriage had been taught (in many circles) to be "an unnecessary +restraint upon human liberty." "Women"--it had been written, _absolved +from shame_, shall be _owners_ of themselves." "We believe" (the same +writer had written) "in the sacredness of the family and the home, the +legitimacy of _every_ child, and the inalienable right of every woman +to the absolute possession of herself." + +All this foul seed-teaching of the days before the Translation of the +Church, burst into open blossom and fullest fruit when once the +restraint of Christian public opinion had been withdrawn from the earth. + +The friendship between Ralph Bastin and Baring had grown with the days, +and as they watched the rapid march of events, all heading towards +ultimate evil, they talked of the possible _finale_, while they +encouraged themselves in their God. + +One evening, when they met, Baring said: + +"I suppose there will soon come the time when no one will be able to +trade without bearing "the mark of the Beast." + +"Some new indication that way?" asked Ralph. + +"I think so," Baring returned. "You remember that I told you that +previous to the taking away of the Church, the vessels of my firm had +been _tentatively_ chartered for the transport of the various parts of +the Temple to Jerusalem. To-day, the negotiations have been quashed by +those who had previously approached us." + +"For what reason?" asked Ralph. + +"They gave no reason," Baring went on, "but I have not the slightest +doubt, myself, that the real reason is this, that I have, of late, +continually spoken warningly against Anti-christ." + +"But how could that be known in circles purely Anti-christ?" Ralph's +tones were eager; his eyes, too, were filled with a puzzled expression. + +"You know," Baring returned, "what we were speaking of the other night, +that now that the devil and his angels had been cast down from the air, +they are (though invisible) yet actively engaged all about us on the +earth?" + +Ralph nodded assent. + +"I believe, I am sure they are everywhere present." Baring smiled a +little sadly, as he added, his eyes sweeping the room in a swift, +comprehensive way: "There may be, there probably is, one or more +present in this room, at this moment, their object espionage. They +have doubtless been present when I have spoken against Anti-christ, +and----" + +"Yes, but this shipping matter of which you spoke, Bob, is a _Jewish_ +affair," interrupted Bastin, adding: + +"For I presume, since the cargoes would be composed of the Temple +parts, that it would be financed by Jewish capitalists, religionists, +or what not? How then would Anti-christ have anything to do with it?" + +Slowly, deliberately, almost solemnly Baring replied: + +"Lucien Apleon is a Jew!" + +Bastin started sharply. Some idea of what his friend meant flashed +upon him. + +"Lucien Apleon!" he cried hoarsely. "But what----" + +Baring broke in with: "I believe that Lucien Apleon will presently be +_revealed_ as the Anti-christ, and----" + +The conversation had been going on in Ralph's Editorial office. It was +now interrupted by a startling call over the tape-wire, and Baring +suddenly realizing the hour, took a hurried temporary farewell of his +friend. + +An hour later Ralph was seated at his table penning the "Prophet's +chair" column for the next morning's issue of his paper. It was only +natural, under the new order of life and thought that prevailed, that a +daily paper, conducted on the lines of the "Courier," should drop +heavily in circulation. The "Courier" had so dropped, though it still +paid to issue it. + +"_My enemies_, the enemies of God and of righteousness," he murmured, +as he took up his "Fountain," (he preferred a pen to a type-writer) +"are, I am inclined to believe, the chief purchasers of the paper new, +and they only buy it to see what I say from the 'Prophet's Chair.'" + +For a moment, as was now his invariable custom, before beginning his +daily message, he bowed his head and prayed for wisdom to write God's +mind. + +When next he lifted his head, and put pen to paper, he wrote with great +rapidity, and without an instant's hesitation: + +"Resuming the subject of which we wrote yesterday, we tried to show +from Revelation XII, that the teaching was this, that, full of rage +because of his casting out from the heavens, Satan, the great Dragon, +the old Serpent, determined to destroy all lovers of God, that were yet +found among mortals. But even Satan himself is a spirit, and 'cannot +operate in the affairs of the world except through the minds, passions +and activities of men.' He needs to embody himself in earthly agents, +and to put himself forth in earthly organisms, in order to accomplish +his murderous will. + +"Through this wonderful Revelation of God to John, God makes known to +us what that organism is, and how the agency and the domination of the +enraged Dragon will be exerted in acting out his blasphemies, deceits, +and bloody spite. The subject is not a pleasant one, but it is an +important one. It also has features so startling and extraordinary +that many may think it but a wild and foolish dream. Nevertheless it +is imperative that we should all look at it, and understand it. God +has evidently set it out for us to learn and know just how things will +eventually turn out.[1] + +"John, 'in the Spirit,' finds himself stationed on the sands of the +sea--the same great sea upon which Daniel beheld the winds striving in +their fury. He beholds a monstrous Beast rising out of the troubled +elements. He sees horns emerging, and the number of them is ten, and +on each horn a diadem. He sees the heads which bear the horns, and +these heads are seven, and on the heads are names of blasphemy. +Presently the whole figure of the monster is before him. Its +appearance is like a leopard or panther, but its feet are the feet of a +bear, and its mouth as the mouth of a lion. He saw also that the Beast +had a throne, and power, and great authority. One of his heads showed +marks of having been fatally wounded and slain, but the death-stroke +was healed. + +"He saw also the whole earth wondering after the Beast, amazed at his +majesty and power, exclaiming at the impossibility of withstanding it, +and celebrating its superiority to everything. He beheld, and the +Beast was speaking great and blasphemous things against God, +blaspheming His name, His tabernacle, even them that [Transcriber's +note: line missing from book here] tabernacle in the Heaven the +translated saints), assailing and overcoming the saints on the earth, +and wielding authority over every tribe, and people, and tongue and +nation. He saw also that all the dwellers on earth, whose names are +not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain, did worship this +Beast. And for forty-two months the monster holds its place and enacts +its resistless will. + +"This is the picture! What are we to make of it? What does it mean? +How are we to understand it? It would seem to be a symbolic +presentation of the political sovereignty of _this world at the final +crisis_. + +"The Beast has horns, and horns represent power. On these horns are +diadems, and diadems are the emblems of regal dominion. The Beast is +said to possess power, a throne, and great authority. He makes war. +He exercises dominion over all tribes, and peoples, and tongues, and +nations. He is a monstrous Beast, including in his composition the +four beasts of Daniel. + +"From the interpreting angel we know that Daniel's four beasts denoted +'four kingdoms' that arose upon the earth. The identification thus +becomes complete and unmistakable, that this monstrous Beast is meant +to set before us an image of earthly sovereignty and dominion. And if +any further evidence of this is demanded, it may be abundantly found in +Rev. XVII. 9-17, where the same Beast is further described, and the ten +horns are interpreted to be 'ten kings.' + +"This Beast is therefore the embodiment of this world's political +sovereignty in its last phase, in the last years of its existence. +Daniel's beasts were successive empires, the Babylonian, the +Medo-Persian, the Graeco-Macedonian, and the Roman. But the lion, the +bear, the leopard, and the nameless ten-horned monster, each distinct +in Daniel, are all united in one in Revelation. + +"This Beast appears to be, undoubtedly, an _individual_ administration, +_embodied in one particular man_. Though upheld by ten kings or +governments, they unite in making the Beast the one sole Arch Regent of +their time. + +"This he--the Beast, the Anti-christ--gets a grip of the nations, who +willingly submit to his rule, being under the spirit of delusion, +'believing _the_ lie' of the Anti-christ. + +"Already, we see that this confederacy of nations is being called into +an almost sudden existence. The seers of our nation, before this +strange order of things that has arisen in our midst, since the taking +away of the church, were wont to say to certain political changes--'at +the back of all the known forces that have helped to bring so-and-so to +pass, there almost _seems_ to have been some unseen, unknown +Master-mind at work.' + +"'Tis so now, and the startling events that are following each other so +rapidly, are the product of a master-mind, the 'Man of Sin,' +Anti-christ, the Beast who has been energized by Satan, the Old Dragon, +who though he has not _yet_ avowed himself, may be expected to do so +any day or hour now. + +"It will hardly be news to any one who reads this column regularly, +that the building of the Temple which is to be reared in Jerusalem, by +the Jews, who have largely returned to the 'Promised land' in unbelief, +is being pushed on with the utmost celerity. The fact that, for some +years previous to the Translation of the Church, all its parts, made to +perfect scale, were prepared and fitted, enables the builders to erect +this wonderful structure with almost magical speed. + +"Simultaneous with this work, there has just appeared in Jerusalem, two +remarkable men, who would appear to be Enoch and Elijah of old. These +men are witnesses for God, and are testifying against Anti-christ. + +"We say that these men would _appear_ to be Enoch and Elijah, and not +Moses and Elijah, as some, in the old days before the Rapture, had +supposed. The allusion to water turned to blood, in the eleventh +chapter of Revelation (which treats of God's two witnesses) very +probably led some writers to connect the _first_ of the two witnesses +with Moses--since Moses turned water into blood. + +"The main point of identification, we think, in the case of these two +witnesses, however, lies in the fact that since it is appointed unto +men _once_ to die, the two witnesses must needs be men who have never +passed through _mortal_ death. _Moses did die_, hence it seems to us +that he was disqualified from being one of the two witnesses, both of +whom have presently to pass through mortal death in the streets of +Jerusalem. Now Enoch and Elijah did not pass through mortal death, +hence we believe the event will prove that these two witnesses are +Enoch and Elijah. + +"Each day that we pen this particular column we are conscious that it +may be the last we shall pen, hence our anxiety to warn all our readers +against the Anti-christ, and his lie--the strong delusion of 2 +Thessalonians II 12." + +For a few moments longer Ralph wrote on in this strain, then, just as +he had completed the last sentence, his special Tape-wire rang him up. +He summoned Charley to carry his _M.S._ sheets to the comp. room. With +a word to his Secretary, (who was divided from him by one thickness of +wall only, communication being by a 'phone,) he turned to his Tape. + + + +[1] The Apocalypse, by Joseph A. Seiss, D.D. p. p. 401. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +CRUEL AS THE GRAVE! + +Lucien Apleon's eyes held the cold, cruel malignity of a snake. His +brows were cold, straight, unruffled. His smile held the polished +brutality of the most Mephistophelian Mephistopheles. + +Judith Apleon knelt at his feet, her beautiful face working painfully. +A smile as cruel as his mouth crept into his eyes as he noted her +grovelling, as he watched the anguish in her face. + +She shuddered as she saw that smile creep into his eyes. She had seen +it before--more than once. The first time had been among the glorious +mountains of her beautiful Hungarian home. An old peasant woman, with +the reputation of a witch, had scowled upon him, and had uttered a +curse on him. The spot where the three had met was in a lonely pass. +At the utterance of the curse he had cut the poor old hag down, with +one fierce slash of his heavy riding whip. She had howled for mercy, +and for reply he flogged the poor frail old prostrate form until life +had fled, then, with a lifting spurn of his foot, he had hurled the +body over the edge of that mountain pass, into the unknown depths of +the ravine beyond. And all the time his eyes had smiled, as they +smiled now--and Judith shuddered, for the smile was as cruel as the +grave, and was a reflection of Hell. + +She knew the diabolical cruelty which lay hidden behind that smile, and +remembering the fate of those upon whom he had bent that smile, she +sickened with a shuddering fear of her own life. + +They had quarreled, that is to say she had _tried_ to thwart him in a +trifling thing. She hardly, herself, realized _what_ he was, or the +power he possessed. + +"Lucien," and her voice shook with the agony which filled her, with the +fear that had her in its shuddering grip. "Lucien, don't look like +that at me." + +With an affrighted scream she cried: "Don't! Don't! Lucien! No one +on whom I ever saw you look, as you look now, ever lived an hour, +and----." + +His gaze of diabolical hate hypnotized her. She wanted to take her +eyes from his, but could not. + +He made her no audible reply. He only smiled on. A faint cry, like +the low scream of a terrified coney, escaped her. Her face paled until +it was like the grey-white of a corpse. + +"Spare me, Lucien, spare me----." + +She would have said more, but the chill of his hellish smile froze the +words upon her lips. + +He never once changed his attitude. His left elbow rested on the +corner of the mantel, the fingers of his right hand played with the +gold watch-guard he wore. + +A full minute elapsed, then with a cry of passionate, painful entreaty, +she lifted her beautiful clasped hands, and wringing them in agony, +cried: + +"Lucien--Lucien--." Then a sob choked her. + +For another long minute there was a tomb-like silence. He never moved +a muscle of his face. The chill of the smile in his eyes deepened, and +seemed, as it was bent upon her, to numb her faculties. + +Her whole frame seemed to wilt under the ice of his smile. She +shivered with the concentrated hate his eyes expressed. + +Lower and lower she crouched at his feet. And as he saw her wilt and +shiver the smile of Hell deepened in his cruel eyes. + +Suddenly he spoke. The words were uttered in dulcet tones. But their +meaning had, to her, the sentence of death, as softly, calmly, there +fell from his lips: + +"I have no further need of you! You are in my way!" + +For one instant her eyes remained fixed upon his face. Then slowly her +limbs relaxed, her body swayed lightly forward, and sank rather than +fell upon the thick pile of the carpet. + +With a low, mocking laugh Lucien Apleon turned away from the dead form. +But before he passed out of the room he did a curious thing. A Bible +rested on one of the shelves of the room, he took the volume from its +place, opened it at the 13th of Revelation and taking a pen, he dipped +it into the red ink, and ran a red line around the 15th verse of the +chapter. + +A moment later he had passed from the room. + +The verse he had red-scored, read: "He had power to give life unto the +_image_ of the Beast, that the image of the Beast should both speak, +and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast +should be killed." + +No wonder that Lucien Apleon smiled. For if presently, he was going to +cause the _image_ of the Beast to cause death to those who defied him, +how much more could he himself strike dead by the power of the Satanic +energy given to him. + +Judith Apleon's body was conveyed to the crematorium and consumed. A +doctor had certified heart-disease; there was no inquest. Lucien did +not attend the funeral. The whole affair was carried through by the +undertaker. There were no mourners. + +The Anti-christ spirit is marked by "Without natural affection," one +could not therefore expect Anti-christ himself to possess _any_ +affection. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +"A REED LIKE A ROD." + +Events moved with startling rapidity. Events which, in the +swift-moving times of the last years of the nineteenth century, would +have occupied a decade to bring to pass, now occupied no more than the +same number of days. The revived Roman Empire was an established fact. +Moved by Satan, the ten kings had united to make Lucien Apleon their +Emperor. The nations, having cast off all belief in the orthodoxy of +the previous centuries, refusing to believe God's truth, utterly +scouting it, in fact, they had laid themselves open to receive +Anti-christ's lie, and had swallowed it wholesale. + +Babylon had been rebuilt, and had become the _Commercial_ centre of the +reign of Lucien Apleon, even as Jerusalem was now to become his +religious centre. + +Ralph Bastin was still Editor of the "Courier," though each week, each +day, in fact, he wondered if it would be his last of office, even as he +often wondered if he might not have to seal his testimony as a +God-inspired editor, with his blood, his life. + +Already, all who, like himself, would live Godly, had to suffer bitter +persecution. Many of the Godly had been found mysteriously murdered, +and always the murders had been passed over by those who were in +authority. + +Ralph was on the point of leaving his office for luncheon, (he always +lunched in the city,) when a visitor was announced. + +"Rabbi Cohen, to see you, sir," announced Charley. + +"Show him in at once," replied Ralph, and rising to his feet he went to +the door to meet his friend. + +The Rabbi entered with a little eager run, and the two men grasped +hands heartily, their respective faces glowing with the gladness they +each felt. + +As it had been with Tom Hammond and that other Cohen, the Jew, who had +shared in the translation of the Church, so with the Rabbi who was now +visiting Ralph, he had been drawn to call upon Ralph, in the first +place, because of his editorial espousal of the Jewish people and their +interests. + +Between Ralph and the Rabbi, there had grown up a very strong +friendship, and though for some weeks, they had not met, each knew that +the other's friendship was as ever. + +After a few ordinary exchanges between the pair, the Rabbi, suddenly +looked up eagerly, saying: + +"I have come to say good-bye, to you, my friend, unless, by any +fortunate chance, I can persuade you to accompany me, or, at least, +follow me soon." + +"Good-bye, Cohen?" cried Ralph, "Why--what--where are you going?" + +"To Jerusalem, Bastin!" There was a curious ring of mixed pride and +gladness in the manner of his saying "Jerusalem." + +"You know," he went on, "that we Cohens are the descendents of Aaron, +that we are of the priestly line. I am the head of our family, and my +people have chosen me as the _first_ High priest for our new Temple +worship." + +Brimming with his subject, he spoke rapidly, enthusiastically: "The +Temple is to be formally opened on the tenth of September. The +tradition among my people, and handed down to us in many of our +writings is this, that the Great Temple of Solomon--opened in the +seventh month, as all our scriptures, yours as well as ours, say--was +dedicated and opened on a day corresponding with the modern tenth of +September. Our new Temple will be opened on the tenth of this month." + +On entering the room he had laid a long, cylinder-shaped japanned roll +upon the table. This he now took up, took off the lid, and drew out a +roll of vellum. Unrolling the vellum, he held the wide sheet out +between his two outstretched hands, saying: + +"I brought this on purpose for you to see, friend Bastin." + +He smiled pleasantly as he added: "I expect you are the only Gentile +who has seen this finished drawing." + +For a few moments both men were silent. Ralph was speechless from +amazement, the Rabbi from eager interest in watching his friend's amaze. + +The "drawing," as the Rabbi had called it, was in reality a superb +painting of the most marvelous structure possible to conceive. The +bulk of the vellum surface was occupied with an enormous oblong +enclosure. The outer sides of the enclosure showing a most exquisite +marble terracing, the capping of the marble wall was of a wondrous +red-and-orange-veined dark green stone. The bronze gates were capped +and adorned with massive inlayings of gold and silver, while the floral +parts showed the colours of the precious stones used to produce each +separate coloured flower. + +A huge altar, the ascent to which, on three of the sides was by flights +of wide steps, occupied the fore-part of the courtyard inside the gates +of the main entrance--there were five entrances, each with its own +gates. Two entrances on each side of the oblong enclosure, and one at +the courtyard end. + +Beyond the altar was a huge brazen sea, resting upon the hind-quarters +of twelve bronze oxen. Beyond the brazen sea was the temple itself, +entered by a wide porch of wondrous marble, the pillars of which were +crowned with golden capitals of marvellous workmanship. The porch was +surmounted by a dome. Then came the temple proper, its form a square +above a square, the upper square surmounted by a huge dome, supported +upon columns similar to those found in the porch, and in the +base-square. + +What the actual building must be like Ralph could not conceive! The +picture of it was a bewildering vision of almost inconceivable +loveliness. + +Now and again he asked a question, the Rabbi, at his side, delighted +with his admiration, answering everything fully. + +"What has your wonderful temple cost?" Ralph presently asked, as the +picture was being rolled up, and replaced in the japanned cylinder. + +"Twenty million pounds, a full third of which has been spent upon +precious stones for studding the walls, and gates, and pillars!" + +Ralph gasped in amaze. "Twenty--million--pounds!" He repeated the +words much after the manner of a man who, recovering from a swoon, +says, "Where--am--I?" + +They talked together for a few moments of the _how_ of the financing of +such a costly undertaking. Then suddenly, Bastin faced his friend, a +rare wistfulness in his face and in his voice, as he said: + +"I wish, dear Cohen, you, and your dear people could see how futile all +this work is! I do not want to hurt you by speaking of Jesus of +Nazareth. But suffer me to say this, that probably the only references +which God's word makes to this Temple of yours, are in Daniel xii. 11 +and in the Christian New Testament, Matthew xxiv. Mark xiii 2, 2 +Thessalonians ii 14, and Revelation xi 1, _and there it is mentioned in +connection with Judgment_. In the first verse of _our_ eleventh of +Revelation, the temple is to be measured, but it is with a reed _like a +rod_. Not the ordinary measuring reed, but like a _rod_, the symbol of +Judgment. + +"And that, dear Cohen, will be the end of your beautiful temple--it +will be destroyed in Judgment, and soon--all too soon--it will be +cursed and defiled by the abomination of desolation of which your +beloved prophet Daniel speaks, in the twelfth chapter and the eleventh +verse." + +With a sudden new eagerness, but as sad as he was eager, he said: "In +your extremity, and in your desire to be established in the land of +your fathers, you talk of making a seven years covenant with Lucien +Apleon, Emperor of the European confederacy?" + +Cohen, evidently impressed by Ralph's manner, nodded an assent, but did +not speak. + +"Oh, Cohen, my friend, my friend!" Ralph went on. "Would to God you +and your people had your eyes open to the true character of that man, +Lucien Apleon! If you had, you would see from your own prophets that +he was prophesied to be your foe. Remember Daniel nine, twenty-seven +(according to the modern chaptering and verses) "He shall confirm the +covenant with many for _one week_: (a week of years, of seven years) +and in the midst of the week (at the end of the first three and a half +years) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and on +the battlements shall be the idols of the desolator." + +Cohen's face was a picture of wondering amaze. Twice his lips parted +as though he would speak, but no sound came from them, and Ralph went +on: + +"I could weep with very anguish of soul, dear friend, at all that you, +and every truly pious Jew will suffer; when, at the end of the three +years and a half ('the midst of the week') the foul fiend whom you are +all trusting so implicitly, will suddenly abolish your daily sacrifice +of the morning and evening lamb, and will set up an image of himself, +which you, and all the _Godly_ of your race, will refuse to worship. +Then will begin your awful tribulation, 'the time of Jacob's deadly +sorrow.' + +"It is in your own Scriptures, dear friend, if you would but see it. +And in _our_ New Testament, in Matthew twenty-four, which is _all +Jewish_ in its teaching, our Lord and Saviour, foretold all this as to +come upon your people. He even showed them to be in their own land, +saying, 'let them which are in Judea flee into the mountains . . . and +pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath day:' (for you Godly Jews +would not go beyond Moses' 'Sabbath day's journey,' and Anti-christ's +myrmidons would then soon overtake you.)" + +As if to jerk the talk into a new channel, Cohen said, almost abruptly: + +"Why do you say, my friend, that _our_ temple, the temple which we +shall dedicate on the tenth of this month, has probably so few mentions +in the Scriptures, and those in judgment. When we say that the whole +of the nine last chapters of our prophet Ezekiel are taken up with it. +Nearly all our plans have followed the directions, the picture of +Ezekiel's Temple?" + +"That temple, sketched in Ezekiel," replied Ralph, "is the millennial +temple. There was no temple in the nineteen hundred odd years between +the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, and the translation of +'The church,' a few months ago. There could be no temple as regards +God's people--The Church--because all that nineteen hundred years was a +_spiritual_ dispensation. God's Temple then was composed of living +stones, wherein a _spiritual_ priesthood offered up spiritual +sacrifices. + +"But to go back to the temple described by Ezekiel in the last nine +chapters of his prophecy--this is the temple which will be reared in +the Millennium, but it will _not be_ in Jerusalem. Read carefully over +all that Ezekiel's description, and you will see that when your +Messiah, our Christ, comes to reign for that wonderful time of a +thousand years of perfect righteousness, that your land--the land given +in promise by God to your father Abraham--is to be _re_-divided +(Ezekiel forty-five one to five). Ezekiel's Temple, and the division +of the land, stand and fall together, and it is a subject that cannot +be symbolized. + +"Now when the land is divided into straight lines, 'a holy oblation' is +commanded of sixty square miles--if the measurement be by _reeds_, or +fifteen square miles if the measurement be by _cubits_. This oblation +land will be divided into three parts. The northern portion will be +for the priests, and the new temple will be in the midst. The second +division of land, going South will be for the Levites. And the third, +the most Southerly portion, will contain Jerusalem. So that that +temple of the Millenium--Ezekiel's temple--will be fully thirty miles +from Jerusalem. + +"Solomon's temple, and the one your people have just reared are both +situated on Mount Moriah, but Ezekiel's temple will not be on Mount +Moriah, for according to Isaiah two, two, 'It shall come to pass in the +last days, that the mountain of Jehovah's House shall be established in +the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all +nations shall flow unto it.' + +"Read carefully, dear Cohen, your own loved Scriptures (in this +connection, especially Isaiah 50) and you will see that Gentiles shall +help, financially, as well as by manual labor to build the place, which +shall make the place of Jehovah's feet glorious--that must be His +_Temple_, and _not the city_. Though Gentiles will also help to build +the walls of your new city of Jerusalem in _that_ day." + +For fully another half hour the subject was pursued. Cohen was amazed, +puzzled, but because his mind was not an open one to receive the +Truth--nothing blinds and obstructs like a preconceived idea--he failed +to grasp the Scriptural facts as presented by Ralph. + +The moment came for the farewell word between them. "I may never see +you again on earth, dear friend," Ralph remarked. "For, believe me, +the day is near at hand when all of us who will cleave to _our_ God, +_your_ God--the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, will have to seal our +testimony with our blood. + +"In three years and a half you, dear Cohen, and all the Godly ones of +your race, will be at issue with Lucien Apleon, for according to your +own prophet, Daniel (apart from our _New_ Testament Scriptures) he, the +Anti-christ, will autocratically put a stop to your sacrifices in your +Temple, and will set up his own image to be worshipped, and if you will +not worship that image, or if you do not succeed in fleeing to a place +of safety, your lives will be forfeited. May God bless you dear, dear +friend, and lead you into the Truth of His own plain statements of the +facts you have to face." + +Cohen was quiet, subdued, almost sad. Then, as if to bridge an awkward +moment, he said, with a forced eagerness: + +"Why not come to the opening of the Temple yourself, instead of sending +a representative to report to your paper?" + +Ralph shook his head; "I could not get away, dear friend." + +He did not voice the actual thing which weighed with him, that any day +now he might cease to be Editor of the "Courier." + +The two men shook hands, and parted as men part who never expect to +meet again. + +Bastin left alone dropped into a "brown study." He was suddenly +recalled to the present, by the arrival of the mail. The most +important packet bore the handwriting of Sir Archibald Carlyon, Ralph's +proprietor. + +He smiled as he broke the envelope, recalling the thought of his heart +only twenty minutes ago, and wondering whether his foreboding was now +to be verified. + +The letter was as kindly in its tone as Sir Archibald's letters ever +were. But it was none the less emphatic. After kindliest greetings, +and a few personal items, it went on: + +"All the strange happenings of the past months have strangely unnerved +me. I cannot understand things, 'I dunno where I are,' as that curious +catch-saying of the nineteenth century put it. I live like a man in a +troubled dream, a night-mare. Several members of our church have been +taken, and I, who prided myself on my strict churchmanship, have been +left behind. My boon companion, the rector of our parish, a man who +always seemed to me to be the beau ideal clergyman, he too is left, and +is as puzzled and angry as I am. I think he is more angry and +mortified than I am, because his pride is hurt at every point, since, +as the Spiritual head (nominally at least) of this parish, he has not +only been passed over by this wonderful translation of spiritual +persons, but being left behind he has no excuse to offer for it. + +"The curate of our church and his wife, whom we always spoke of as +being 'a bit _peculiar_,' they disappeared when the others did. By the +bye, Bastin, good fellow, what constitutes '_peculiarity_,' in this +sense? It seems to me now, that to be out and out for God--as that +good fellow and his wife were, as well as one or two others in our +parish--is the real peculiarity of such people. God help us, what +fools we have been! + +"Our village shopkeeper, a dissenter, and a much-vaunted _local_ +preacher, is also left behind, but his wife was taken. A farmer, a +member of our own church, who used to invite preachers down from the +Evangelization Society, London, is gone, but his wife, a strict +churchwoman like myself--but a rare shrew--is left. + +"But to come to the chief object of my letter, I am afraid you will be +sorry--though perhaps not altogether unprepared for what I have to +say--'_I have sold the 'Courier._' It may be the only daily paper, (as +you wrote me the other day) that 'witnesses for righteousness,' but my +mind is too harrassed by all this mysterious business of the +_Translation_ of men and women, to think of anything else but the +future, and what it will bring. I have sold the paper to Lucien Apleon +(through one of his agents, of course, since now that he is made +Emperor of this strangely constituted confederation of kings and +countries) he cannot be expected to personally transact so small a +piece of business as the purchase of a daily paper." + +Ralph lowered the letter-sheet, a moment, and a weary little smile +crept into his face. + +"I might have guessed that Apleon would have done this," he mused, "if +he is, as I believe, the Anti-christ!" + +He lifted the letter again, and read on: + +"He wanted to take possession at once, and give me 5,000 pounds extra +as a retiring fee for you. But I was obstinate on this point, and told +his agent that he could not have possession until a month from today. + +"Between this and then I shall hope to see you, dear Bastin. I want to +see you very much on my own account. Your utterances from 'The +Prophet's chair,' have aroused strange new thoughts and desires within +me, and I want you to help me to a clearer view of the events of the +near future. Then, as to the sundering of our business relations, you +know me so well that you know I shall treat you handsomely when you +retire from the Editorship. + +"Talking of finance, what special use can money be to a man like me +now, if all that you have lately written in the 'Courier'--as to _the +future_--be true?" + +The letter wound up most cordially. Then there followed a "P. S." + +"My old friend, the Rector of the parish, who has always been keen on +theatricals--he would have made a better actor than parson--is having +the church seated with plush-covered tip-seats like a theatre, and +proposes to have a performance every Sunday Evening, and as often in +the week as funds, and interest in the affair, will warrant. Good +Heavens! What has the world come to? Then only to think that +England's King, is under the supreme rule of a Jew, whose antecedents +no one appears to know--that is to say, previous to his meteoric-like +appearance when he was twenty-five. 'How are the mighty fallen!" + +"How, indeed!" murmured Ralph, with a sigh, as he let the letter fall +on his table. + +For a moment or two he stared straight in front of him, then, half +aloud, he murmured: + +"A month only! God help me to make good use of the thirty days! If I +can but wake up some of the people of this land to the real position of +affairs, I shall be only too thankful." + +For a few moment's longer he sat on, deep in thought. Then suddenly he +started sharply, grew alert in every sense, and sounded a summons for +his messenger boy. When the lad appeared, he asked: + +"Do you know if Mr. Bullen is on the premises?" + +"Yus, sur, he is!" + +"Ask him to step this way, at once, please!" + +George Bullen, was a keen, up-to-date young journalist, a man of +thirty-two only, but with a fine record as regarded his profession. A +close personal friendship existed between his chief and himself, for he +had been wholly won to God through Ralph's efforts. + +In a few words Ralph explained to the younger man, the changes that +were near at hand. Then continuing: + +"But while you and I, George, represent 'The Courier,' we will make it +all the power for God and for humanity that lies in our power. Though +I am not sure that we can do much with _humanity_, now. The strong +delusion has got such an almost universal grip upon the race, that they +will gladly, eagerly swallow all the lie of the Arch-liar, the +Anti-christ. In the old days, before the translation of the church, +the Bible spoke of 'the whole world lieth in the arms of the Wicked +One,' and that is truer than ever now. Well, George, _we_ must do all +_we_ can. + +"But now to the chief thing for which I sent for you. The new temple +at Jerusalem is to be opened on the tenth. I want you to go, to +represent the 'Courier.' What I am especially anxious for you to do, +is to note everything that will show the true _inwardness_ of things, +so that the little time left to us, on the dear old paper, shall be a +time of holy witness for God. + +"Your knowledge of the East, your acquaintance with Yiddish, and Syrian +and Hebrew, the very swarthiness of your skin, and blackness of your +hair, dear boy, may all serve you in good stead. For, if you feel led +to it, I should suggest that you adopt that Syrian costume I once saw +you in. This course would have many advantages, for while you could +the more readily mix with the people, and obtain _entree_ often where +you otherwise could not, your identity as representative of 'The +Courier,' would not be made known. + +"I am not sure, George, but that if you presented yourself as our +representative, that all kinds of obstacles might not be put in the way +of your obtaining information, or, more likely, in transmitting it. +You might even be quietly put out of the way. Spare no expense, dear +boy, where other men spend five pounds, spend a hundred, if it will +serve us better." + +For a time the two men held deep consultation. Then when they gripped +hands in parting, each commended the other to God. + +George Bullen started for the East next afternoon. His stock of +Eastern garments was full and varied, and not one Eastern in a million +would have known him from a Syrian native. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +"THE MARK OF THE BEAST." + +George Bullen was no stranger to Jerusalem, yet it was a strange +Jerusalem that met his sight as he entered it by the Jaffa gate. For +interest, picturesqueness, even amusement, there is no time so rich as +at early morning, at the Jaffa gate. + +Bullen had been perfectly familiar, in the old days (eight years ago) +with the scene, but there were differences this morning. The long +strings of donkeys and camels, laden to within the proverbial "last +straw" and led by foul-smelling, unkempt Bedouins were there, as usual, +in spite of the fact that railways now ran in every direction. Eastern +women, robed in their loose blue cotton wrapper garments--sleeping, as +well as day attire--were there in galore, only now all of them walked +unveiled, whereas, in the old days, most of them were veiled. + +Pilgrims from every land were pouring into the city. The cafes were +crowded. The aroma of strong black coffee was often _fortunately_, +stronger than the less pleasant odours of the insanitary streets. + +Early as it was, the money changers were doing a stirring trade. +Water-carriers moved about with their monotonous cry of "_moyeh_," +supplemented, in some cases, by the same word in English--"_Water_." + +Market garden produce, the finest in the world, and now proving how +literally Palestine, under the fertilizing power of the "_latter_ +rain," had become "a fruitful garden," was piled everywhere about at +the sides of the streets. Cauliflowers thirty-six inches around, with +every other vegetable equally fine, melons, lemons, oranges, grapes, +tomatoes, asparagus, onions, leeks, lettuce, water-cress, even garlic, +all were here, with turbaned dealers sitting cross-legged among the +produce. + +Early as it was, crowds of American, English, and Continental tourists +were abroad, their gleaming white drill attire and tobies and helmets, +conspicuous among the grander colour of the natives. + +But George Bullen had seen all this many times before, his eyes now +took but little note of the streets and their contents, except that he +noted the fact under the new order of things, since the Jews had come +into possession of the city, that there was scarce a Moslem of any kind +to be seen, and that most of the tumble-down, smaller houses, of a few +years back, had been pulled down, and that the streets in consequence +had been considerably widened. Hundreds of new houses of bungalow +type, had taken the places of those pulled down. Most of these were +built on the "Frazzi" system, or else after the fashion known as +reinforced concrete. + +All these changes were note-worthy, and full of meaning, but George +Bullen's eyes and attention were almost wholly absorbed by the Temple +that crowned Mount Moriah. He had not, of course, seen that wonderful +painting on Vellum which Rabbi Cohen had shown Ralph Bastin. It is +true he had seen photographs and sketches reproduced in the English +illustrated papers. But none of these had prepared him for the actual. + +Robed in his Syrian garb, and looking for all the world like the "real +article," he passed through the cosmopolitan crowd always making his +way upwards to where the marble and gold of the wonderful Temple reared +itself. + +Arrived outside the great main gates, he stood awed at the wonder and +magnificence of all that he saw. The whole structure was complete. +Not a pole or plank of scaffolding was left standing, no litter or +rubbish heaps were to be seen; every approach, every yard of the +enclosure was beautifully swept. A few officials, in a remarkable +uniform moved here and there about the great enclosure. + +For two hours George Bullen moved slowly round the Temple, making long +pauses at intervals, and taking in every item of the wondrous +architecture and still more wondrous ornamentation. When he finally +left the Mount, and took his way down the wide, steep decline--the +whole of this wide road was composed of marble blocks, reminding him of +the Roman Appian way--his mind was in a whirl, his head ached with the +glare of the sun on the gold, and with the deep concentration of his +sight upon so much colour and glitter. Again and again he paused, and +looked upwards and backwards, he had a difficulty in tearing himself +away. But he had much to do, and could not afford to linger. + + * * * * * * + +It was the day before the official opening of the Temple. Jerusalem +was thronged--inside and outside, for Jerusalem, (according to +Zechariah ii. 4) was "inhabited as a town _without walls_." The +environs, and the suburbs had spread in every direction. For the first +time in the history of the world, the hills, Gareb and Goath, _outside_ +Jerusalem, had, a few years before this, been covered with villas, +bungalows, hotels, etc., absolutely fulfilling Jeremiah xxxi. 38-40. + +Lucien Apleon's Palace, which had been built concurrently with the +Temple, and which, in its way, was almost as gorgeous a building, was +filled with the ten Kings of the Confederacy, and their suites. + +Soldiers of every one of the ten nationalities--though all wearing one +uniform, save that the "facings" were different to denote the land to +which they belonged--were everywhere to be seen. + +Itinerant venders moved about among the throngs bawling their chief +ware--"Programs for the Temple, to-morrow." George Bullen bought one +of the Programs. + +It was an amazing production, and as blasphemous as it was amazing. It +was most sumptuously got up, printed in a style unknown to the days of +even the end of the first decade of the 20th century. + +But before he began to read the order of the events, or even to note +the marks of sumptuousness of the appearance of the program, his +attention was arrested by a bold, curious hieroglyphic which headed the +program. This figuring was in richest purple and gold, and bore this +form: + +[Illustration: Mark of the Beast] + +For a long time he puzzled over the sign. Then, suddenly a memory +returned to him. One night when Ralph Bastin had been speaking to him +about the Anti-Christ he had said: + +"Here is a curious thing, George! I have just read in the Revelation, +thirteen, eighteen, that The Number of the Beast--the Anti-christ--is +THE Number of MAN; and his number is 666." Now this number, _in the +Greek_, is made up of two characters which stand for the name of +Christ, with a third character, the figure of a crooked serpent put +between them--the name of God's Christ, the Messiah, turned into a +devil sacrament (i. e. oath of fidelity.) + +"Ralph would have shown me the sign, I know," Bullen mused, "but that +at the very moment we were talking together, there came that scare of +fire in the stereo room, and we both rushed away. But now I know that +this sign on the program is the 'Mark of the Beast,' and that it +_signifies the oath of Fidelity to Anti-christ_." + +He caught his breath sharply, as he murmured: + +"So it has begun! He has begun to show his hand!" + +Then he let his eyes take in the contents of the program. + +Beneath the Hieroglyphic was the greeting: + + "TO ALL THE WORLD! + APLEON, EMPEROR, + by the election of + MAN. + + Commands the following events in connection + with the Dedication and + opening of the Temple at Jerusalem. + + 4-30 p. m. 9th Sept., year 1 of Apleon. + (Subject to minor alterations.) + + Appointment of the High Priest elect, + by the Emperor. + Address by The High Priest. + Confirmation of the 7 years Covenant + between the Hebrew Nation and the Emperor. + Affirmatory Signatures and Seals affixed. + Sign of the Sacrament + to be distributed and donned by all present. + +6-30 p. m. Bureaus will be opened all over the city, and in the +immediate neighbourhood of the Temple for the free distribution of the +sacramental signs, with directions for wearing the same. The donning +of the sign will be, of course, entirely voluntary. + + +"For how long," murmured Bullen to himself, "will this be voluntary?" + +He continued his reading: + +"At 7-30 a. m. 10th Sept. The Dedication of the Temple. The +procession of Kings, headed by Apleon, Emperor of the World, will start +from the Apleon Palace at 7-0 a. m. Imperial troops will line the way. + +"Fanfare of trumpets will greet the procession on its arrival at the +Temple Gates. + +"Opening ode will be sung by 1,000, singers massed in the courtyard. + +"Ceremony inside will commence by the investiture of the High Priest +with his glorious robes of office, the investiture will be performed by +the Emperor. + +"The 7 years Covenant to be read aloud by the High Priest. + +"Ode of Adoration of the Emperor to be sung by the Priests, choristers, +and others. + +"The ceremony is to be held at the above early hour, that there may be +no undue exposure to the heat of the later fore-noon." + +In pursuance with the liberty of these more enlightened days, all +persons may worship with covered or uncovered heads, as may seem fit to +each person. This applies to Jews and Jewesses also, and, (N. B.) +there will be no division of sex for the Jew and Jewess, they will +worship together. The days of the _grille_ are past. + +"LONG LIVE THE EMPEROR!" + + +"Of all the extraordinary productions--!" murmured George Bullen. He +did not finish his sentence, he would have been puzzled to have found +terms to have expressed all that he felt. + +"I wonder if these programs can be procured in London?" he went on. + +A seller passed him at that moment, and he bought a second program, to +send to Ralph Bastin. + +They had made an arrangement, before parting, that everything--letters, +wireless, and all other messages--should be sent in code, and to an +address, and under a name that should not be recognized as having any +connection with the 'Courier'--"if," Ralph had added quietly, "there +are no demons present here who can divulge our talk." + +This was always one of the difficulties that the godly, at that time, +had to contend with, the ignorance of how far _invisible_ demons could +spy upon, and report their sayings and doings. + +Hour by hour, the streets grew denser, for each hour brought new +arrivals, and always some of the _elite_ of the earth. To George +Bullen, with the journalist instinct, there was "copy" everywhere, and +he was not slow to take full notes. + +Things were quieter from one to four, for the heat, in the open, was +almost unbearable. At four o'clock, Bullen was close by the chief gate +of the Temple. He would watch the arrival of the chief actors in the +first part of the great ceremonies. + +Through the mighty hosts of acclaiming peoples which lined that wide +marble upward road, King after King rode, all on white horses. +Merchant princes from Babylon; Royal princes from many lands. + +The last of the Kings to arrive was the King of Syria. At the gate, +close to where George Bullen was standing, the horse of the Syrian +monarch grew restive. + +Quick to seize an opportunity of getting into the Temple to see the +ceremony, George caught the rein of the horse, and with a soothing word +and touch, led the beast through the gate, flinging back a word in +Syrian to the King in the saddle. + +Hearing his own tongue, and noting the garb of his horse's leader, the +King flung a word of thanks to George, who led the horse right up to +the door of the sanctuary. + +Each monarch kept his saddle. Five were drawn up on one side, and five +on the other. They waited for Apleon. A moment or two only, then amid +a thunder of acclaim of "Long live the World's Emperor!" Lucien Apleon, +the Anti-christ, the Man of Sin, riding a jet black horse, cantered +through the gate. + +He was a marvellous figure of a man. In stature he was nearer seven +feet than six. His form as erect as a Venetian mast. His costume was +strange, but very striking, and gave him a regality of appearance. + +It was partly Oriental, partly occidental, and consisted of a +curious-toned darkish green military tunic, heavily-frogged with gold, +and with a wide, gold-braid collar. The buttons of the tunic were +separate emeralds set in circles of diamonds, and enclosed in a wide +circlet of gold. He wore white knee-breeches, and high Hessian boots, +adorned at the heels with gold spurs. Over his shoulders, clasped at +the neck with a large gold-and-precious-stone buckle of the same +mysterious form as the hieroglyphic crest at the head of the Programs, +he wore a wonderful burnouse of white and gold fleece, the gold +predominating over the white, and flashing fiercely, gorgeously in the +sun. His leonine head was surmounted with a dazzling covering that was +neither a crown, a mitre, nor a turban, but partook of the nature of +all three. It was profusely bedecked with the most costly of precious +stones. The largest diamond ever seen, shaped as an eight-pointed +star, and measuring nearly six inches from point to point, was set in +the front-centre of the mitre-turban-crown. With the sun shining upon +it, it was impossible to gaze upon the diamond. + +Riding up to the door of the porch of the Temple, his horse's +fore-hoofs resting on the upper of the four steps, he paused only to +return the salutes of the ten kings, then flung himself from the +saddle, and waited a moment until his horse was led away. Then turning +outwards towards the way by which he had come, he surveyed the scene +below him. + +Never in the history of the world had anything more Wonderful been +seen. Several million people were gathered--streets were blocked; +walls of the city, roofs of the houses and palaces and public buildings +were packed. Every window that faced the mount was crowded. Flags +flew everywhere within the city, and beyond the walls, where hundreds +of thousands of acclaiming people were gathered, every eye was directed +towards that Temple entrance where Anti-christ, the World's Emperor +stood. + +As he turned to face the millions of acclaiming people, a gun was fired +from the grounds of his palace, and at the same instant, a ball of +white, which had hung at the head of the flag-staff on the roof of his +palace, suddenly broke, and there swept out upon the light breeze, an +enormous white silk flag, the centre of which bore the mystic +inscription that had already appeared on the official programs, and +which he wore in gold jewels for a buckle of his bernouse. + +The eyes of Apleon flashed with a curious pride as he saw the great +white flag break in the air, while a smile, diabolical as Hell itself, +curled his lips. It seemed almost as though it was to see that +damnable challenge flung forth to the wind, that he had turned, more +than to acknowledge the acclaim of the gathered millions of the +deceived, lie-deluded people. + +A moment later, he turned into the Temple. The ten kings, Babylonian +merchant-princes, and others of note following. + +George Bullen, walking directly behind the King of Syria, passed in +with the others. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE INVESTITURE. + +A great hush fell upon those who gathered within that Temple. It was +not an awe from the sense of the divine--for God was not there in His +glory and power, since Anti-christ's spirit filled the place. It was +not the awe of silence and subjection to the world's greatest +ruler--though, presently, something of that would come upon those +gathered when they had eyes, ears, and mind for Apleon the Emperor. +Neither was the silence one of curiosity in the character of the +service in which they had been called to take part. The hush upon the +assembly was one of wonder and amaze at the splendour of the Temple's +interior in which they found themselves. + +Gold--there was no silver--, precious stones, sandalwood, marbles such +as had never been seen by any eye before, all fashioned into a wondrous +style of architecture peculiarly unique, yet withal holding a perfect +harmony--such is (not a description, for a description, in detail would +baffle the clearest mind and cleverest pen)--a bold mention of a few of +the chief materials. + +The artist--architect--he must have been as much an artist as an +architect to have designed the style--had taken _some_ ideas from the +description, in Ezekiel, of the Millennial Temple. There was the palm, +the cherub with two faces, (the young lion and the man) "so that the +face of a young lion was on the one side toward the palm, and the face +of a man on the other side toward the palm." The vine and the +pomegranite were there. In spite of the most profuse detail all was +rendered with a perfection of minuteness, while throughout the whole of +the interior the harmony of colour was beyond praise--and beyond +description. + +For the technical skill exhibited in each separate item of colour, +carving, and "cunning" workmanship, had, with truest artistic sense, +been subordinated to that wondrous balance of the whole appearance that +went to make up the amazing harmony that was as a veritable atmosphere +in the place. To combine in a chromatic scheme so much brilliance and +colour without even a suspicion of gaudiness, or the _bizarre_, was a +triumph of art. + +The light in the place was a true adjunct to the effects produced by +the wondrous composition of the blended glory and colour. There was no +window anywhere, but "Radiance," the newest light of the day, tempered +by rose-pink and palest electric blue prisms, filled the place with a +wondrous radiance, while at the same time the eye could not detect the +various spots where the separate lights were located. + +The company gathered was in harmony with the place, since the many +otherwise gaudy tints of costume and uniform were softened, blended, +and harmonized by the power of colour-tone of the prisms through which +the otherwise fierce, flashing "Radiance" was shed. + +The _outer temple_ interior--the place where the brilliant throng was +gathered--would hold a thousand persons comfortably. (There was no +seat in Solomon's temple, as there was no seat in the Tabernacle, which +was a symbol of the ever unfinished work of the earthly priesthood.) +And there was no seat here, save a throne-chair of gold, ivory, +mother-of-pearl, and precious stones, that occupied the centre of a +magnificent dais just in front of the entrance into the very small +"Holy of Holies." A wonderful curtain of purple velvet--not the fine +twined linen as of old--screened off this narrow strip of the interior, +from the larger outer section. The curtain was worked with marvellous +needlework in gold and pearls of almost priceless value, the pattern +being a wonderful blending of cherubim, palm, and pomegranate. + +On entering the building The Emperor Apleon, seated himself on the +Throne, when each person present made a deep bow of obeisance. One man +only remained upright--George Bullen. Taking advantage of his position +behind a marble pillar, he held himself erect. Had he been detected, +he would have rapturously sacrificed his life rather than have bent to +the Anti-christ. + +The platform of the dais, on which the throne-chair stood, was reached +by three wide marble steps that sprang from the floor-level. At the +foot of these steps, Cohen the High-priest elect, stood clothed in a +single garment of pure white linen, that reached from his shoulders to +his feet. Attendant priests stood by, each holding one garment or +ornament, as the case might be, ready for the investiture. + +Apleon rose from his throne, a magnificent, but a sardonic figure for +all that. As he rose, soft, weird music came from an angle where a +screen of palm-ferns was placed. Though mechanical, the music was of +an exquisite character. + +Then, suddenly, swelling above the low weird music, came the voices of +a score or more white-robed priests chanting: + +"Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God!" + +George Bullen's eyes were fixed upon the face of Apleon, and he noted +the mocking, contemptuous smile that curled his lips at the language of +the chant. + +As the chant finished, Cohen turned and faced Apleon, and slowly +climbed the steps. The music had ceased now, and, amid an absolute +silence, Apleon took "the embroidered coat" from the offered hands of +one of the subordinate priests. The garment was of white linen +wonderfully, beautifully embroidered. It reached from the shoulders to +the feet and fitted the body closely, a draw-string of white linen tape +fastening the sleeves at the wrists, and drawing the breast of the +vestment close about. + +A linen girdle "four fingers wide," and long enough when tied to reach +the feet, was next put about Cohen by Apleon. Then a third priest +handed the Emperor, "The Robe of the Ephod." This was a long, loose +garment of Royal blue satin, with a wide neck-opening, the opening +bound with a wide gold band. The Robe was slipped over the head, and +it dropped to the feet of the High-priest. Upon the lower hem of the +Robe was a rich, deep fringe of alternate blue, purple, and scarlet +tassels made in the form of pomegranates. Between each pomegranate was +a golden bell. + +Still amid an absolute silence, the investiture proceeded. Apleon took +the costly and beautiful Ephod of a fourth priest. This vestment was +in two pieces, one for the front, the other for the back. They were +joined together, at the shoulders, by bands of wide gold braid, and +buckled with two of the Anti-christ covenant badges. Apleon had +provided himself with these, and no one probably, save George Bullen, +noticed of what the bucklings consisted. But nothing escaped Bullen, +for while the attention of everyone else in the place was given only in +a _general_ way to the robing of the High Priest, _his_ whole and +absolute attention was concentrated on Apleon, all that he did, every +varying expression of his handsome but sardonic face, and every +movement of his fingers. + +Another priest handed "The curious girdle of the Ephod." But, unlike +the ordained adjunct, as given in Exodus, in this case it was a +separate piece, and instead of being of the same stuff, was a cunningly +worked band of gold studded with many gems. The girdle handed to +Apleon, fastened with a clasp. The clasp was worth a Jew's ransom, and +like the breast-plate--presently to be slung about the neck of +Cohen--was a gift to the Temple by Apleon. + +But the gift was accursed, for among the curiously, twisted gold of the +clasp, the "Mark of the Beast" could be traced, if carefully +scrutinized. + +The Ephod Girdle being clasped, a priest handed the breastplate to the +Emperor. It should, according to the Mosaic command, have been made of +the same material as the Ephod--"of gold, of blue, of purple, of +scarlet, and of fine twisted linen." + +But in this case it was made of gold, and slung by a gold chain about +the High-priest's neck. + +The gold filigree setting for the stones, held within its cunning +workmanship that same damnable sign--"The Mark of the Beast," though +only a very keen, clever eye would have detected the foul hieroglyphic +among the twistings of gold patterning. The whole plate was about ten +inches square, the centre divided by gold ribs, across and across, into +twelve sections, each section holding a separate precious stone of +fabulous wealth. Just for a moment or two the wondrous mechanical +music stole out again upon the silence. Lovers of music recognized +part of Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony." What wondrous melody there +was in the fragment! The priests' voices chanted again, and all the +time the face of Apleon wore its mocking smile. Reading from the +top--right to left, as the breastplate hung on the breast--the stones +and their significance ran as follows: + + CARBUNCLE, TOPAZ, SARDIUS, + Zebulun Issachar. Judah. + + DIAMOND, SAPPHIRE, EMERALD, + Gad. Simeon. Reuben. + + AMETHYST, AGATE, LIGURE, + Benjamin. Manasseh, Ephraim. + + JASPER, ONYX, BERYL, + Naphtali. Asher. Dan. + + +The last piece of this wonderful Robing, was the Mitre. It was really +a turban of pure white linen, an oblong shield-shaped plate of pure +gold, being attached to the fullness of the deep, front roll of the +turban. Engraved in Hebrew characters upon the plate, were the words: +"HOLINESS TO THE LORD." Here again, keen and practised eyes would have +detected the foul sign of the "man of sin," among the wondrous, and +delicate chasing of the gold around the Hebrew lettering. + +It has taken twenty times longer to record this robing than the time +actually employed. As a matter of fact it occupied but a few minutes. +Then, at last, the work was complete, and the silence was broken. + +It was the Emperor who spoke: "Behold the Priest of the Most High God!" +he cried. + +Every soul present, save George Bullen, was more or less under the +spell of the Arch-Deceiver, or they would have caught the sneer in the +rich full voice, even as George Bullen caught it. + +True to his journalistic instinct, as well as to his new desire as a +Christian, to know well the Word of God, Bullen had read over, the +night before, the passages in Exodus and Leviticus, relating to the +robing of the High-priest, and had been struck with this fact, that the +High-priest himself did _nothing_, took no active part in his robing. +Moses, as _God's representative_, did _everything_. + +Now as he recalled this, and while he considered why Apleon should have +"acted valet" to a Jew priest, there recurred, with startling power to +Bullen, the words of prophecy by Daniel, concerning the "Man of Sin:" +"he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every God--" + +"He has purposely chosen to do this robing business, quietly setting +himself up as God," was the thought of Bullen. There was no time for +further musing. The newly-invested High-priest was speaking: + +"Bring hither the '_Torah_'--Roll of the Law." + +A serious-faced young Jew, a praying shawl over his head, bore towards +the High-Priest--the parchment scroll loosely-cased in a silken +slip-off. As he bore the sacred roll he reverently kissed the tassels +of the drawstring of the silken slip. + +The attendant drew off the cover, and dropping it across his left +shoulder, unrolled the scroll, and held it extended for the High-priest +to read. + +Cohen made a sign to a priest who held a Shophar (hallowed ram's horn) +in his hand. Instantly the priest covered his head with his "_talate_" +(praying shawl) and lifting the horn to his lips he blew "the great +Teru-gnah." + +Every Jew presently covered his head with his prayer shawl, and the +High-Priest, cried: + +"Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God!" + +Then turning to the scroll, he read in a curious, monotonous intone, +part of Solomon's prayer at the opening of the Temple: + +"Now then, O Lord God of Israel, let Thy word be verified (on the +morrow of this day). Thy word which Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant +David. Amen." + +Inclining his head towards the scroll-bearer, as a sign that he had +finished his brief reading, he cleared his voice and addressing his own +people, said: + +"Brethren, fathers, sons of Father Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, because that +the good hand of our God hath been upon us, we are once more restored +to our own land. No longer trodden down by stranger's feet, Jerusalem +is again for the Jew, and the Jew for Jerusalem. We meet here this +afternoon in our own Temple, reared by Jewish gold and patriotism. Our +Father's Temple, Solomon's could have been but a poor synagogue +compared to this in which we are now found. To-morrow, all the world +will be gathered to this place, (all that part of the world worth +calling _The_ World) to the formal, official opening of this Temple. +To-morrow, for the first time since this city, and since "Herod's" +Temple were destroyed, we shall slay the morning and evening lamb, the +daily sacrifice ordained by our God. + +"Today we have an accredited place among the nations. There may be +special _Jewish_ reasons for the coming to pass of this universal +recognition of our race, but chief among the factors that have gone to +bring all this about, is the friendship of Lucien Apleon, Emperor, +Dictator of the world." + +Cohen turned and bowed to the throne where Apleon sat, his face filled +with a smile in which pride in his position and quizzical mirth at +Cohen's allusion to the soundness of the Jewish position, were mingled. + +There was a slight movement among the kings, and other grandees, and +amid murmurs of assent at Cohen's allusion to the Emperor, the member +of the Royal confederation bowed to the throne. + +Cohen proceeded: "In spite of our position, today, fathers and +brethren, we could not maintain it a week, and certainly we could not +strengthen and consolidate it, but for our Emperor. We desire to +maintain, to strengthen our position, hence it has seemed good to the +great International Jewish committee to seek to have a covenant with +Lucien Apleon, Emperor--Dictator of the World. The covenant is for +seven years. We on our part are to serve him in every way, he on his +part to guarantee our protection--for we have neither Army or Navy--in +return for our allegiance to him. + +"This covenant, duly drawn up, is here for final signature this +afternoon. As your elected High-Priest, and representative of our +race, I shall sign it on behalf of our people, our Emperor will also +affix his signature. Then all of us, as a sign of our covenant and our +allegiance, will wear a badge which has been prepared. The badge can +be worn--like the written Law of our God, as commanded by our father +Moses, 'as a sign upon our hand, or as a frontlet between our eyes--.' + +"Many millions of the badges have been prepared, made in white metal +for _free_ distribution to the poorest of the world, or jewelled, gold +or silver, for those who would fain purchase something more in +accordance with their rank, station, or wealth. The time is at hand +when no one will be able to buy or sell, save he who wears this sign." + +He paused, and turning to where a little knot of white-robed priests +stood, they parted, and showed an exquisite little table of gold and +pearl, and on the table a jewelled casket of marvellous workmanship. + +Two of the priests bore the table to the centre of the floor where +Cohen stood. He opened the casket, drew forth a small silk-tasselled +parchment roll, and laid it open upon the table. The two priests held +down the curling corners. + +A fountain pen--the cylinder of jewelled gold--lay in a hollow of the +casket. Cohen took the pen, and wrote at the foot of the text of the +covenant: + +"In the Name of our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and on +behalf of His chosen people, I Solomon Isaac Cohen (Aaron,) First +High-Priest of the new era, in the City of Jerusalem, on the ninth day +of September, 19--, (_world's_ calculation) subscribe myself." + +As he lifted his form erect again, he made a sign to the two priests. +They lifted the table and bore it up to the platform of the dais. + +Apleon, without rising from the throne, took the pen and made his +signature. Two seals were affixed, Cohen and Apleon, touched them, +then the table was once more lifted to the floor level, and the ten +kings signed the covenant, _as witnesses_. + +Then every one present, save George Bullen, donned one of the badges. +In the crowding, his non-compliance was unnoticed. All the kings and +most of the princes and others, from Babylon, received massive and +costly signet rings from the hands of Apleon, himself. Each signet was +engraved with "The _covenant Sign_," as it was called. + +_God calls it "The Mark of the Beast."_ + +The recipients of the rings, all wore them on the third finger of the +right hand, as did others of the minor personages. Many of the Jews, +in their enthusiasm, wore one of the "Signs" in the centre of the +forehead, held in position by a fine gold chain that passed round the +head, as well as one on the right hand. + +When the "Covenant" badges had been donned, Apleon was hailed as the +world's deliverer, the whole Temple ringing with the plaudits of the +kings and others. + +A moment, and he passed outside, and stood on the top step of the +Temple flight. Again the "Hurrahs" were raised, and caught by the +multitudes that thronged that wide marble approach to the gates of the +Temple, and caught again and again by ever more distant peoples, until +in a moment or two, from three to four million people, inside and +outside the city, were belching forth their acclaimings of a demon, +counting him almost God. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE DEDICATION. + +Save for the Bible record of the opening of Solomon's Temple, Cohen and +his colleague-priests, had no precedent upon which to base their order +of procedure as regarded the official opening of the Temple, and the +consequent re-commencement and re-establishment of the daily sacrifices. + +Then, too, the ideas of the Jew of the period, as regarded worship, +were more or less of a hybrid character, while the modern repugnance to +blood-shedding, and all the consequent unpleasantness of the +sacrificial ceremonies, caused the Jewish leaders to construct a very +much more simple ritual than anything approaching the original Mosaic +standard. + +One thing had been decided by them in council, that was, to make this +great epoch in their renationalization to synchronize with their New +Year, which would properly fall the next month, on October 2nd, to be +correct. The usual New Year's ceremony of Shophar-blowing would be +observed. + +Cohen, and his fellow priests, were early at the Temple, and long +before the hour advertised on the programmes--7-30, every arrangement +(from their stand-point) was complete. + +At seven o'clock, sharp, the gun was fired at the "Palace Apleon," and +the great silken flag, with its "Covenant" sign, flew out upon the +breeze. The whole city and its suburbs were astir. + +Suddenly a burst of brazen music rent the more or less silent air of +the city, and Cohen and his fellow priests knew that the procession had +started from the Palace. Soon it was in sight. Oh the wonder, the +gorgeousness, the BLASPHEMY of it! Riding on a white horse, there came +first the standard bearer. The heel of the standard pole was socketted +in a deep barrel of leather that ran from the saddle to the stirrup. +The rider was a man of enormous strength, and he had need to be, to +bear the strain of the breeze that tugged at the many square yards of +white silk, of which the standard was composed. Like the flag on the +place, like the brand on the brows and right hands of many of the +multitude, the "_Covenant_" sign appeared in the centre of the standard +borne aloft by that mounted bearer. + +Behind the standard came the band, fifty mounted players. Behind the +band there was a gap of sixty or seventy feet. Then, alone, proud, +regal, handsome, mighty of stature, noble in pose, mounted on his +jet-black mare, and attired as he had been overnight, rode Apleon, the +Emperor--Dictator of the World. After him, but with fifty feet of +space between, rode the ten kings, then their respective suites. Then +came the Babylonian merchant princes, and others. + +It was a triumphal procession for Apleon. For it was _his_ name that +filled throats of the acclaiming multitudes as they roared out their +"Huzzahs!" + +The scene in the Courtyard of the Temple was one of wondrous pomp, and +of even deeper significance. As Apleon rode in, a fan-fare of trumpets +gave him greeting. Then when the last intricate brazen note had +sounded, the mighty multitude drowned even the memory of the trumpets, +by the deafening roar of their Huzzahs! + +Ten bugles sounded "Silence." It took a full minute for the command to +pass from lip to lip to the uttermost reaches of the people. Then, in +the comparative stillness, Apleon dismounted from his horse, took the +diamond-studded key from the hand of the High-Priest, opened the door, +flung it wide, and proclaimed The Temple opened, "in the name of +Apleon, Emperor--Dictator of the World." + +That opening word truly translated, meant, "in the name of the Devil, +by the person of his Anti-christ." + +The High-Priest, standing on the top-step of the wide flight that led +to the porch, faced the people and priests, and began to recite +selected parts of Solomon's prayer at the Dedication of _his_ Temple. +These finished, he cried, with a loud voice: + +"It having pleased our God to restore us, His chosen earthly people, +the Jews, to our own land, and to our own beautiful Zion," joy of the +whole earth, "we make the occasion to be as the beginning of a new era, +a new year. And as the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, in Egypt, +saying: 'This month shall be the beginning of months: it shall be the +_first month of the year to you_,' so we proclaim to _our_ people +today, this month shall be the beginning of our New Year, and of a New +Dispensation to us." + +Dropping his proclamation loudness of voice, he slipped into his +synagogue recitative tone, as he went on: + +"On the first of the month, shall be a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing +of trumpets and holy convocation. Ye shall offer an offering unto the +Lord." + +He signed to the Tokeang--the Shophar blower--and instantly the weird, +curious, quavering, vibrating sounds broke on the still air. + +As the last note of the shophar died away, Cohen cried: + +"Let all the house of Israel, sacrifice unto the Lord!" + +Lifting his hand as he spoke, a turbaned priest led a lamb to the foot +of the altar. A gleaming knife, snatched from his girdle flashed for a +moment in the air; there was a swift movement of the sacrificial +priest's arm, a gurgle from the silent lamb, and the little fleecy +thing sank dying upon the grating before the altar. + +Only those immediately near could see all that followed, until the +moment when the carcass of the lamb was reared to the grating on the +summit of the altar. + +A strange stillness rested upon the people gathered, as another +turbaned priest brought a torch to fire the wood beneath the altar. + +Before he could reach the altar, the voice of Apleon stayed his feet. + +"Let no fire be brought!" he cried, in commanding tones. "I will +consume the offering!" + +He stretched his right hand forth, the fingers closed. Then opening +his fingers, he drew back his arm suddenly, sharply, then jerked it +forward again--it was the old mesmeric pass of the magicians. + +Instantly, the interior of the altar blazed with long, fierce forks of +many coloured flames, and as they finally resolved themselves into a +blood-red fiery cloud that hung over the sacrifice, the "_covenant_" +sign floated in white amid the blood-red cloud. Another movement and +the red cloud melted away, but like a quivering golden light the "Sign" +remained an instant hovering over the altar. When that, too, melted, +it was seen that not a vestige of the lamb was left. + +Awed and silent, the onlookers wondered! For a moment George Bullen +was puzzled. Then he recalled the words of prophecy, as regarded The +Anti-christ. + +"_His coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs +and lying wonders . . . And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh +fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and +deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles +which he had power to do._" + +The greatest tribute that could have been given to the supernatural +power exhibited by Apleon, was the awed silence, and the bowed heads of +all who had witnessed his satanic miracle. + +Its effect upon Cohen and the rest of the Jews, was, if possible, +greater than upon any of the Gentiles who had witnessed the wonder. + +Upon the awed silence there suddenly fell a deep growl of thunder. The +startled people lifted their heads. With almost an instantaneousness, +the heavens darkened. It might well have been a moonless midnight, so +dark did it suddenly become. + +The thunders roared and cannonaded, while fierce lightnings, like +liquid fires, raced earthwards down the blackened heavens. No one, +native of the land, or foreigner, had ever known thunder or lightning +such as now broke upon them. + +For days afterwards men were as deaf as though born thus, stunned by +the thunder; and scores lost their sight from the lightning's flash, +never to recover it again. + +As sudden as the darkness, there now came a hurricane blast that tore +at the Temple walls as if it would hurl its gold and marbles into the +valley below. No man could keep his footing in the courtyard or on +that summit, and everyone flung themselves prone to the earth--save +Apleon. He stood smiling his sardonic, contemptuous smile. + +Cohen and a few others crawled towards the wide, folding-doors of the +Temple. But the hurricane was before them, and the doors slammed to, +and, in some way jammed. + +The horses started in stampede, terrified by the storm. Apleon spoke +the one word "Soh!" and they stood absolutely still, save for a long, +shuddering kind of shiver that ran through each beast at the same +instant. + +Now, for a few minutes, the thunder roared louder and deeper, until it +drowned the thunderous roar of the wind. Peal followed peal with +hideous, horrible swiftness. The lightning was a succession of fierce, +white ribbons of blood-red flaming fire. + +For ten minutes this extraordinary storm raged. There was not one drop +of rain. Then, with a suddenness only equalled by that of the starting +of the storm, it ceased. The blackness of the heavens rolled away like +mist before the rising sun, and while all the western horizon suddenly +glowed with the fierce red glow of a furnace blaze, the sun appeared +once more over-head shining as though nought had happened. + +The procession now re-formed, in the order in which it had arrived, and +to the lilt of the gay music of the powerful band, the volatile spirits +of the multitude revived, and the loud "huzzahs" rent the air as +Apleon--the Anti-christ--passed through the waiting masses of the +people. + +George Bullen contrived to keep Apleon full in view. In a general way +no item of the procession of the ceremony at the Temple, or of aught +else had escaped him--but it was _in_, and _on_ Apleon that his special +attention had been concentrated. + +He watched the procession sweep through the great gate-way of the +Emperor's Palace. Then, when the last of the guests had passed in, the +huge folding gates closed, and the multitudes began to disperse. + +The vast bulk of the people were lodged _out_side the city, and now +poured out through the gates--for, with the practical re-building of +the city, the exits had been made very numerous. + +Bullen was lodging with a Christian Syrian about half-a-mile outside +the city. He moved on in a line with one of the exodus streams. + +As he cleared the city, he became conscious that just ahead of him +there was a great and ever increasing gathering of people--a mighty +throng, in fact. Arriving at the fringe of the crowd which grew closer +and closer, as well as greater, every moment, he was amazed to see two +very striking looking Easterns, clothed in sackcloth, and standing high +upon a mound of stone. The appearance of the two men was +extraordinary. The face of the elder of the two was cast in a +wonderful mould. + +George Bullen was fairly well versed in the facial characteristics of +all the known races--_past_ as well as present. But this man's face +bore no relation to any type he had ever seen depicted. Eastern, it +was, it is true, but unlike, and more beautiful than anything he knew +of. The calm of it was wondrous, and George involuntarily found +himself saying over: "Thou wilt keep him in _perfect peace_ whose mind +is stayed on Thee," and instantly there flashed upon him, in connection +with that word, one other: "Enoch _walked with God_, and was not, for +God took him." + +"He might be Enoch returned to earth," he told himself. + +The other man was a different specimen. His features were strongly +Jewish marked. There was a fierceness of eye, a power for a blazing +wrath in his deep-set orbs. Not that the first man's eyes and face +were incapable of fiery indignation, but they gave indication of having +been schooled by long intercourse with the divine keeping power of the +God of Peace. + +The men were evidently preachers--prophet-preachers. They spoke +alternately, their voices clear, far-reaching, their tones perfectly +natural--there was no raising of the voice--yet reaching as far as the +farthest listener. + +Their message was a Testimony to God, to His power, His might, His +Holiness, even to His mercy. They told of judgments, near at hand, +upon all who would not cleave to God in righteousness. Then in deeply +solemn tones, they spoke of the presence of the "Mark of the Beast," +upon the persons of so many thousands of the people, and warned all who +would not discard the badge, and throw over their allegiance to +Apleon,--"The Anti-christ--that they would presently share in the awful +destruction which should overtake Anti-christ and his followers." + +A roar, savage and full as from ten thousand lions, with the snarl of +wolves in it, greeted this last part of the testimony, while a thousand +throats belched forth the cry: + +"Down with them! murder them!" + +There was a savage rush towards the sackclothed prophets. But though +the multitude of would-be murderers swept over, around, and past the +mound on which the two faithful witnesses had been standing, and though +they did not _see_ them disappear, yet they were not found. + +"_And when they shall have completed their Testimony, the Beast that +cometh up out of the abyss shall make war with them, and overcome them, +and kill them--._" + +"Yes," mused George Bullen, "when they have completed their Testimony," +and not an hour, or a day before. For these are evidently God's two +faithful witnesses, Enoch and Elijah, the only two men who never passed +through mortal death, and hence are the only two saints who can become +God's witnesses, in this hideous Anti-christ time, for, as witnesses, +they must be slain in the streets of the city of Jerusalem--"_where +also their Lord was crucified_." + +There was much angry talk, and savage swearing among the enraged, +mystified, disappointed multitude, at the loss of their vengeance upon +the witnesses, but, had they known it, they had come off very lightly +in being only disappointed, for God's witnesses had the power "_when +any one willed to injure them, to send forth fire out of their mouths, +and to devour their enemies_," and in the days that were to follow this +first encounter with them, the multitude would learn this to their cost. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A LEBANON ROSE. + +With the disappearance of the two witnesses there came a gradual +darkening of the heavens, until in the space of a couple of minutes, +the whole district became as dark as it had been when the sacrifice in +the Temple courtyard had finished. + +Thunder and lightning accompanied the darkness, and this time heavy +rain. Baffled by the darkness, the multitude ran hither and thither, +aimlessly, wildly, in search of their homes. Presently the vivid +lightning flashes gave them fitful direction, and gradually the crowds +melted away. + +George Bullen had swerved from his homeward way, to reach the crowd +about the "two witnesses." The gleaming lightning gave him his +direction now. He was already drenched to the skin, for the rain was a +deluge. + +As he moved on through the black darkness, (illumined only with the +occasional lightning flashes) he stumbled over something. Some +instinct told him it was a human form. Stooping in the blackness, and +groping with his hands, he made out that the form was that of a slender +woman. There was no movement, and in response to his question, "are +you hurt?" there came no reply. + +The face, the lips which he touched with his groping fingers, were +warm, so that he knew it was not death, though the form was as still as +death. + +"Whoever she is," he mused, "she will die in this storm if she is left +here." So he stooped and gathered the drenched form up in his arms. +Her head fell upon his breast, her limbs were nerveless in his clasp. + +Another, a longer, a more vivid flash of lightning, came at this +instant, and showed him his path clearly, he was close to his lodgings. + +Two minutes later he had reached the door of the house. It was on the +latch, and he entered with his burden. He found his way to his room, +laid the warm, breathing form down upon a rug upon the floor, and lit +the lamp. + +By the light of the lamp he saw that the poor soul he had rescued, was +a sweet-faced Syrian girl, by whose side he had found himself standing +on the evening before, when he had stood in the throng on the Temple +mount. They had exchanged a few words of ordinary tourist-interchange, +and he had been surprised to find that she could speak good English, +though with a foreign accent. + +But realizing now that she needed immediate attention, if she was to be +saved from taking a chill, he lit a tiny hand-lamp and carrying it with +him to light his way, he went in search of the woman of the house. + +As recorded on an earlier page, the people with whom he had found +lodgment were Christian Syrians--a husband and wife. + +He went all over the premises, but though he shouted several times, +neither the husband or wife answered or appeared. There was no sign of +them anywhere. + +"They were probably caught, as I was, in the storm," he told himself, +as he returned to where he had left the rain-soaked Syrian girl. + +He had a bottle of mixture, which he always carried on Eastern travel, +as a preventive of chill. He poured out a little of the warming stuff, +and raising the unconscious girl he poured a few drops through her +parted lips. + +She drank by mere instinct. He repeated the experiment, and she caught +her breath sharply as she swallowed the second draught. A faint sigh +escaped her, her eyelids trembled, and, a moment more they unclosed. + +At first her gaze was unseeing, then slowly she took in his anxious +face. "Where--am--I?" she murmured brokenly. + +"You are safe, and with friends!" he replied. "I stumbled over you in +the road, you had fallen, somehow, in that dreadful thunder-storm." + +Her eyes met his, and for one long instant she seemed to be searching +his face. Then a weak, little smile trembled about her mouth, as she +said: + +"We met last night--I remember I thought how _true_ your face was--I +can trust you, I know." + +A sigh, more of content than aught else, escaped her, and he felt how +she let herself rest more fully in his supporting arm. He gave her +another sip of the cordial, and she thanked him as some sweet child +might have done. + +For a moment she lay silent and still, then she spoke again, in a +vague, speculative way, as though she was searching her mind for the +clue: + +"Ah, yes, I remember now. The great darkness came on, after those good +men of God had spoken. And the crowd got frightened and ran hither and +thither,--to find their homes, I suppose--and in the darkness some +rushed against me, knocked me down, and--and--" + +She shuddered, as she added, "I believe some others kicked me and +trampled upon me, and--" + +"Are you hurt?" he cried anxiously. "Do you feel as if any bone was +broken, anywhere?" + +She smiled back into his anxious face: "Hurt? not much! Certainly no +bones are broken. But I feel bruised and sore, and--so--" + +She shivered, as she added: "so cold!" + +He awoke to the immediate necessity for her to get out of her wet +clothes, and gently lifting her until she stood upon her feet, he said: + +"Can you stand alone, do you think?" + +"Let go your hold," she answered, "and I will see." + +Very reluctantly George released his hold of her, though his eyes were +anxious, and his hands were stretched out within reach of her, lest she +should give way. + +She put her hand to her head, as she said: "I feel a little dizzy, but +that will pass off." + +"When did you eat anything last?" he inquired. + +"Oh, I had a good breakfast, before I started out this morning. If I +could lie down somewhere,--and sleep--for I slept but badly last +night--I think I should soon be all right." + +He explained that he could not find the man or wife of the house, but, +(pointing to a room beyond) he said: + +"There is a bed there, and there are female clothes hanging in a recess +(they were there when I occupied the room) go in there, dear child." + +She seemed but a child, to him, so sweet and innocent was her face. + +"Divest yourself of every rag of your wet clothes (drop them out of the +window, and I will gather them up, and get them dry for you) chafe +yourself with the towels you will find in the room, then wrap yourself +in one of the sheets or rugs, and try and sleep." + +"Ah, kind friend! How good you are!" she said, softly, a deep sense of +what she owed him, (for he had doubtless, she realized, saved her life) +moving her heart strangely. + +With the shy, tender grace of a child, she caught his hand and kissed +it, leaving two great warm teardrops upon it, as she cried: + +"May God reward you! You saved my life!" + +Her long silken lashes held great quivering drops upon them. Her +hair--what swathes there were of it--had become loosened, and hung +about her in long, thick, wet tresses. Her cheeks were warmed to a +vivid tinting by the cordial, the excitement by the deep emotion that +filled her, so that, in that moment she looked very beautiful. + +He led her to the room he had indicated, and glancing around to see +that the towels were in the place, he said, "what is your name?" + +"In English?" she asked. Then without waiting for him to reply, added: +"Rose!" + +"Mine is George!" he returned. Then with a final word of: "Sleep, if +you can!" he left her. + +When the hanging over the door-way had dropped behind him, and he was +alone in his little living room, he tried to think out the many +wonderful things that had happened since he had sallied forth at +half-past six that morning. + +Taking his note-book from his breast, he tore the sheaf of short-hand +notes he had already made, along the perforated line, and began to +compose his message for the "Courier" in the code that had been +previously arranged. + +It took him an hour and a half to complete the work, as writing in +code, took longer than the ordinary method. + +By the time he had finished, it was past noon, and he wondered at the +stillness of the house. Once more he made a tour of the other part of +the premises, calling the names of both the man and woman of the house. + +They were still absent. It was very mysterious! He could not know +that they were among the scores of those who had been trampled to death +in the horrible darkness on the Temple mount that morning. + +Passing back to his room, he listened at the hanging over that inner +room, where the rescued girl lay. He could hear her softly, regularly +snoring, and decided to get his message off while she slept. + +He was a little dubious about leaving the house door unlocked, yet +feared to lock it lest the man and wife should return. + +He was gone an hour. Both going and returning, he had been struck with +the general desertedness of the streets, but realized that in all +probability every one would be resting after the scenes of the morning. + +Entering the house he found it exactly as he had left it, and beginning +to feel hungry, he hunted about for the wherewithal to make a meal. + +Deciding that his _protege_ might soon be stirring, he carried into his +living-room all the materials for a meal. When he had spread his +table, he remembered the clothes for his _protege_ (he had spread them +in the sun to dry, having found them where she had dropped them, by his +instructions, out of the window.) + +Passing quietly back to the hanging between the two rooms, he listened +again. This time she was awake and softly humming the air of "The +sands of Time are sinking." + +Lifting the hanging a few inches at the bottom he thrust the clothes +underneath, and called: + +"Do you feel well enough to get up, Rose? If you do, I will make +coffee, and we will have a meal!" + +"Thank you, thank you, good George!" she cried, with the _naivete_ of +an innocent child. "I will dress and come out, for oh, I am so hungry +and thirsty!" + +He smiled to himself at her sweet child-likeness, and hurried away to +make the coffee. + +Whether the aroma of the coffee reached her senses and hurried her, it +would be impossible to say, but certainly, in an incredibly short space +of time (for a woman) she drew aside the hanging a little, and asked: + +"May I come, please?" + +He flung aside the hanging, his smile, as well as his voice saying: +"Come!" + +Then as she appeared before him, bright, fresh from her sound restful +sleep, her hair carefully groomed and coiled in a crown on her head, +her cheek glowing with the prettiest, tenderest blushes, he thought how +beautiful she was! + +A woman, evidently in years, (as she would be judged _in the east_) yet +a pure child in character and manner. + +"How do you feel, little Rose?" he asked, taking her hand in greeting. + +"A little stiff," she answered, "but that is more from the bruises than +ought else, I think, for--" + +Her cheeks warmer to a deeper tint, as she said: + +"I have a dozen or more bruises!" + +"Let us sit down," he laughed, "and we can do two things at once, eat +and talk." + +Half an hour passed; they ate and drank, and grew almost merry as they +exchanged a few notes. When, however, in response to her question: + +"But you are English, George?" he replied. + +"Yes! Though as I speak Syrian perfectly, and Hebrew fairly, it seems +better for me not to appear to be English, hence my Syrian costume. I +feel I can trust you, Rose, my new little friend, so I do not mind +telling you that I belong to a great English newspaper, and as many of +those _now_ in authority are opposed to our paper, I am passing as a +Syrian, that I may better get my reports, for our paper, through to +England." + +She had started when he began to speak of his connection with a great +English Newspaper. Now she interrupted him, saying, in a cautious +whisper: + +"Are you Mr. Ralph Bastin?" + +It was his turn to start now, and in amaze, he cried: + +"No, I am not Ralph Bastin, but I _am_ his representative. But----" + +His voice grew hoarse with excitement, as he added, low and cautiously: + +"What do you know about Ralph Bastin?" + +She glanced frightenedly around, then with her finger raised, she +whispered: + +"The very air seems full of spies here, as it was at Babylon." + +She leant towards him until her lips almost touched his ear, and +whispered: + +"Lucien Apleon, The Emperor, has decreed that Ralph Bastin is to be +slain!" + +"Tell me more, Rose, trust me absolutely, dear child!" His voice was +very hoarse as he spoke. + +"How do you know this?" he added. "But perhaps you had better tell me +who and what you are, dear child!" + +He leant to her that his voice might be a whisper only, for he realized +her warning of a moment ago. "Do not fear, dear child, I shall hold as +sacred as my faith in God, anything that you tell me!" + +She laid her pretty little plump hand in his, and looked at him +confidingly out of her great Eastern liquid eyes, as with a beaming +smile, she said: + +"I could not be afraid of you, good George, you saved my life, and----" + +She sighed, and there was a sound of supreme content this time in the +sigh. "No," she went on, "I could not be afraid of you, my saviour +from death. And I can, I will, confide in you, for I sorely need a +friend, and I feel, I know I can trust you. I had been asking God, +yesterday, to help me, to guide me to a friend, and I feel that He has +sent you into my life at this point when I, a lone girl, need most a +friend. Someday I may be able to tell you all the story of my life. +It will be enough here, however, to tell you that, for two months, I +have been in Babylon, with my brother--my only living relative, as far +as I know. Babylon----" + +She shuddered as she repeated the name, and her face flushed scarlet, +then paled as swiftly, while a look of horror leaped into her eyes, and +she gazed fearfully round as though she feared some terror of the foul +and mighty city might even here have pursued her. + +"No tongue dare, no tongue _can_ tell a thousandth part of the +abominations of that sink of iniquity. I came here with my brother +three days ago, and he has joined hands with "The People of the Mark." +He is clever, very clever! They know that, and because he will be +useful to them, he has been placed in high office among them, and----" + +She paused abruptly, and with another frightened glance around, +whispered: + +"Do you know what 'the mark' is, and what it means?" + +"Is it what has been flying over the 'Eternal City' here, in the centre +of that great white flag that floats over the Apleon Palace? I think +you must mean that, and if so it is the two Greek characters for the +name of Christ, with a crooked serpent put between them!" + +"Yes!" the one word came in merest whisper from her, then leaning +closer to him, she went on: + +"But do you know, George, the _import_ of the foul Mark?" + +"I believe I do!" he whispered back. "I believe it is what our +Scriptures call the 'Mark of the Beast.' If that be so, as I am +convinced it is, it is the brand of the Anti-christ--and----" + +He, too, seemed to feel the need of increased caution, for he glanced +fearsomely round, as he added: + +"And I believe I know who the Anti-christ will prove to be." + +She shot a swift glance upwards to the casement window, and with +upraised finger, leant towards him until her warm lips touched his ear, +as she repeated what she had said once before: + +"The very air here, seems full of spies. It was so at Babylon! +_Lucien Apleon_ is THE ANTI-CHRIST." + +Again her frightened glance travelled to the casement Then she went on: + +"My brother always confided everything to me. And in telling me the +secret of the Emperor Apleon--though exactly how he learned it, I +cannot say--he never dreamed that I should have any scruples about +serving the Anti-christ. But I love God! I missed the great +'Rapture,' when God's true children were taken 'into the air' with +their Lord, but, though it cost me torture, or my very life, during +these coming days of awful persecution, I can do no other than cleave +to our Lord." + +In an unconscious gesture of loyalty to her God, she had drawn herself +up to her full height, while her vow of fidelity had been uttered aloud. + +For awhile longer they talked on together of Babylon, of "The Mark," of +Anti-christ, of the probable coming days of horror and persecution, +then a chance question of his as to how she came to learn to speak +English so well, led her to say: + +"Shall I tell you my story? The sun is too hot for you to go out for +another two hours, and----" + +"Yes, tell me, Rose," he cried, not giving her time to finish her +sentence. + +He glanced towards a low Eastern couch on the other side of the room, +as he added: "But before you begin, I want to see you lying upon that +couch; after all you have passed through, and in view of unexpected +contingencies that may arise, any hour, you must rest all that you can." + +He made her comfortable, with cushions, on the couch, then seating +himself cross-legged on the floor by her side--the posture was a +favorite one of his, and had been acquired, long ago, during his +residence in the East--he bade her go on. + +"I was born," she began, "in a little village at the foot of Lebanon, +but when I was only six years old my father got work in the +neighbourhood of Trebizond, and we migrated thither. Within a week of +our arrival, at our new home, I became a scholar in a lady Missionary's +class of native children, where, among other things, I learned English. +When I was eleven, my father and mother died of small-pox, and I became +a little waiting-maid to my dear American missionary teacher. Miss +Roosevelly, living in the house, with her, of course. + +"My brother Hassan, was eight years older than me, and he lived with a +schoolmaster, in Constantinople. I had also a dear old grandmother, my +mother's mother, who lived about four miles from the tiny mission where +I lived, and, now and again, I was allowed to visit grandmother for two +or three days at a time. + +"My life was an even, regular, but never monotonous one, for I was +always busy. Then, a year or more ago, there came an awful event in my +life. I was sixteen, and I had gone to spend a few days with dear old +grandmother, and----" + +There came the faintest click in her voice, and she glanced toward the +lemonade caraffe. His watching eyes saw her need, and he reached the +caraffe and a glass, and poured out a draught. She took a big gulp, +then sipped more slowly. And while she drank, he watched her and he +realized more than ever, how true and sweet as well as how beautiful +her face was. + +Young as she was, in development she was a woman, as is invariably the +case of maidens born under tropical skies. It is true that her beauty +was, as yet, of the tender, budding type, but it was the full bursting +bud of the queen of flowers, and already foreshadowed the wondrous +brilliance of the full-blown blossom. + +Eastern though she was, she had blue eyes--forget-me-not-blue--though +the long silken eye-lashes, and the thin, arched, pencilled-like +eye-brows were raven black. When she had finished her lemonade, and +had replaced the glass on the table, she went on with her story. + +"It was the first evening of my home-coming to dear grandmother. The +sun was setting, and the roseate gold of his departing glory was +illuminating everything. How lovely it all was! The gold of that +sunset--I shall never wholly forget it, I think--was everywhere. It +glittered among the tree-tops, gilded the hill-crests, changed the +eastern horizon into a molten sea of warmest gold and colour; and----" + +"Transfigured Rose, eh," he broke in, with a smile. + +She laughed merrily as she said: "I am afraid I was forgetting myself, +talking so much description!" + +A shadow passed over her face, as she went on: + +"How quickly everything was to be changed, though! Grandmother's voice +called me from inside, Come, Rose, my child, and we will give God our +evening chant! + +"I am afraid I sighed, as I turned from watching all that sunset +loveliness. It was not that I disliked our evening devotions, but +somehow felt that evening--as I have often done, in fact--that I would +fain worship God with all His evening miracle before my eyes, and would +fain then have lingered on in the glorious after-glow, though that +after-glow lasted all too short a time. + +"I turned into the house, but I did not close the door, for it would +have seemed like sacrilege to have shut out all that glory. I took my +place by grandmother's side, with my hands folded across my breast, as, +together, we chanted 'Our Father who art in Heaven! Hallowed be Thy +name.' + +"How it all remains with me, and ever will, all the little items of +that last night of dear grandma's life! I can seem to hear her voice +even now, she was very old, and it quavered and quivered like one of +our hill-country dulcimers! + +"Our chant over, grandmother prayed, she prayed extra long that night +and our quick night had come down before she had finished. I lit a +little lamp, and we went to bed. Then----" + +A shudder passed through her beautiful, reclining frame, as she +continued, and her voice had a new note in it, a note of pain: + +"It was about midnight. The whole country slept. There were sixteen +small houses in our little village. They all huddled close together, +(for once there had been a wall enclosing them) suddenly there was a +sound of gun-fire. I leaped from my bed--Ah, me! I cannot describe +it. In half-an-hour the awful tragedy was completed. Every old man +and woman was killed, slain with a sword, or hacked to death, or +speared. Babies, and little children were brained against the walls of +the houses; strong men--fathers, lovers, sons--had been murdered with +every wantonness of savagery conceivable. The only persons spared had +been the budding girls, and one or two of the best looking of the women. + +"Everything of value, that was readily portable, had been seized, each +raider keeping his own lootings. Then, at last, at a given signal, the +murderers and robbers reformed themselves into a solid company, and +rode away, setting fire to the village in half-a-dozen separate places +before they left. + +"I was, of course, one of the girls whose life had been spared. The +man who had seized upon me, when, in my fright, I had run from my bed +to the cottage door, had flashed the light of a torch upon me, and even +now I can recall the fierce delight and satisfaction that leaped into +his greedy eyes, and the manner of his mutterings: + +"Good! Good! She'll _sell_ well!" + +"He stood over me while I dressed warmly, then hurried me out into the +open again. Grandmother had made no sound, given no sign of waking, +and I wondered. I wanted to go into the little room where her bed was, +but my captor would not let me--I never saw her again, and can only +fear that, if God had not already taken her in her sleep (and sometimes +I think this must have been the case), she was slain with the rest of +the old people. + +"Of the next week I have no distinct remembrance. I believe I +travelled, travelled, travelled, ate, drank, slept, but all my +faculties seemed numbed, and my mind was largely a blank. It was when +I was being taken into Constantinople, that I began to arouse from my +strange mental and physical stupor. + +"It was through the cool mist of the morning that I got my first +glimpse of the city of which I had heard so much. Santa Sophia, rising +like some beautiful dream-structure, with the points of its four light, +airy, minarets flashing in the sunlight. Then, little by little, +kiosks, tall sad-looking cypresses, sycamores, and the other +thousand-and-one wonders of that city of beautiful and revolting +contradictions, took shape and form. + +"By seven o'clock we were in the heart of the city, and breakfasting. +My captor had treated me with a certain rough kindness through all the +journey, and done his best to hearten me. He had told me my fate--to +be sold into a harem--but he had pictured it as glowingly, as +glitteringly as his rough eloquence would let him. And, with all the +blood of countless centuries of Eastern races coursing in my veins, and +in the more or less stunned, stupified condition in which that awful +night-tragedy had left me, I yielded, for the time, to the fatalism +with which we Easterns are familiarized from our babyhood. + +"My captor was no novice at the business of selling a girl, neither was +he a stranger to the house to which he had taken me. For, after +breakfast, he showed me into a little room with one quaint, Arabesque +window. In this room there was a bath, and every toilette requisite, +while, from a tin box that he brought in, he took out a number of most +exquisite outer and under garments. Telling me to make myself as +beautiful-looking as I knew how, he presently left me. + +"I am afraid that for a time I was too overwhelmed to do more than +weep. Then as I remembered that it would be the worse for me if I +angered my master, I bathed and anointed myself, though I remember how +once I paused, as I scented my body, and said, through my blinding +tears: 'This is like preparing myself for a sacrificial altar.' + +"I was sitting an hour later, on an ottoman in the room outside the +bath-room, when I heard voices, and steps, and a moment later my +master, accompanied by a little tub of a man, with fatted-hog kind of +face, greasy-looking, and wrinkled with fat, out of which peered two +tiny black eyes--like currants stuck in a bladder of lard--and +twinkling most villainously, entered the room. + +"He was very richly dressed, and bore the name of Osman Mahmed, and, as +I afterwards learned, he was very high in office and in favour with the +Sultan. He was fabulously rich, and, excepting the Sultan, had the +most extensive harem in the city. + +"I had, as a child, learned the Turkish tongue, and had no difficulty +in following all that passed between the seller and buyer. Then after +being lightly pinched, pressed, and squeezed, and ogled, the bargain +was struck, the money for my purchase was paid, and my captor was +instructed to take me, veiled, to the purchaser's palace at two o'clock +that afternoon. + +"I was taken, as arranged, to the Palace, and given in charge of the +head eunuch. A few minutes later, two female slaves took me to a large +dressing-room. Here I was bathed again, and sprayed with a very +valuable perfume, a curious blending of rose and patchouli. + +"I have three crosses tatooed on my body. Each cross consists of +eleven blue dots, one on each of my shoulders, and one on my breast, +and I noticed a look of horror come into the faces of the two +slave-women who were attending me, but neither of them asked any +question of me. + +"My hair was well-groomed, and beautifully dressed, and strings of gold +sequins, and glittering jewelled stars were twisted amid the swathes of +my hair. Then came my robing in garments, so rich, so wonderful, that +they almost took my breath away. When the very last touch had been +given to this wonderful toilette, one of the attendants gave me a +_cachou_ from a box to sweeten my breath. + +"Then, for a time, I was left alone, a strange and awful fear of some +coming evil stealing over me. For I could not forget the looks of fear +and of terror of the slave-women, at the sight of the crosses on my +arms and breast. + +"Wondering what type of place I was in, I got up and looked out of the +casement. A marble court lay just below the window, and, in the centre +of the court was a most beautiful marble basin, quite twenty feet +across, from the heart of which there rose a fountain, with a graceful +_jet d' eau_, flinging its spray high in the air. Two flights of +balustraded steps led down into the basin, a few white doves fluttered +about the steps. Flower borders and beds were artistically dotted +about the court; and cool-looking, shady bowers clung to the high walls +like swallow-nests to the house-eaves. + +"But the beauty of all I saw could not drive from me the strange sense +of dread of some coming disaster. Suddenly, a huge Sudanese eunuch +appeared, and signed for me to follow him; and a minute later I was +ushered into a room where the chief eunuch, and that hideous little tub +of a Vizier, who had bought me, were. + +"The fat, greasy face was distorted with rage, the eyes were blood-shot +and fierce, and his voice was almost a scream, as he cried out to me: + +"'What is this they tell me of you, you Lebanon beast? Are you one of +those dogs, the Christians?' + +"'I am!' I replied. + +"The fat little beast on the dais spat at me, the foul expectoration +falling short of my robe by barely a foot. + +"'Your body, the body I bought,' he yelled, 'is damned by the cursed +sign of the cross, they tell me.' + +"I gave him no reply, and he yelled, 'I will see for myself.' Then to +the two eunuchs, he yelled: 'Strip her!' + +"The men did his bidding, and nude, and shamed, I stood before that +foul tyrant. + +"'Bring her closer!' he yelled, and the big Soudanese lifted me bodily, +and dropped me upon my feet on a mat not a yard from the Vizier. + +"He glared at the tatooed cross upon my breast, then with a fearful +curse, he spat full into my breast, the vileness running down the +sacred sign. Then, as a fiendish look filled his face, he ordered the +chief eunuch to send me for sale in any market that would be open for +such carrion. + +"At a word from the chief eunuch, the big Soudanese snatched me up in +his brawny hands, tucked me under his arm, as a father might laughingly +carry his five-year-old boy, and bore me off. + +"The rest of the story is all too wonderful for more than the merest +outline. I was being taken through the streets, veiled, of course, to +a dealer in girls, when suddenly I saw my brother Hassan, coming +towards me. My veil, of course, would prevent his knowing me, but +tearing off my veil, I leaped towards him, crying: + +"Hassan, Hassan, save me!" + +She paused in her recital, her voice choked with deep emotion for a +moment, then, as she recovered herself, she went on: + +"'How wonderful are God's providences! His ways are past finding out!' + +"Hassan was walking--when I met him--with an officer of the American +Embassy--Hassan was clerking for this officer--and though the eunuch +tried to make a fuss, when he knew who the officer was, he scuttled +back to the Palace as hard as he could go. + +"That night, Hassan and I left the city, lest there should be any +attempt to seize me, and--" + +She paused suddenly, and he leaped to his feet at the same instant, +for, from the direction of the city, there came sounds of loud and +prolonged hurrahing. + +"I will go out and see what is going on!" he said. "Perhaps," he +added, "in these disturbed times, it would be well for you to fasten +the doors, while I am gone. Whether the people of the house or I, +return first, you can easily ascertain who it is, before you open. +Meanwhile, find your way to the other parts of the house, and make +yourself coffee or anything else that you may need--and," + +He held out his hand--: "Good bye, for the present, and, another time, +you must tell me the rest of your wonderful story, and especially how +it came about that you knew so much of Christianity and yet did not +share in the 'Rapture' of Christ's own." + +With the warmth of her Southern, Eastern nature, remembering how he had +saved her, she lifted the hand he gave her, to her lips, and kissed it +passionately, leaving two heavy tear-drops on it, when she dropped it. + +A moment later she was alone. She had barred the outer doors, when he +left. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +HERO-WORSHIP. + +Neither George Bullen, or the "Lebanon Rose," whom he had so +opportunely saved, had had any idea of how rapidly time had fled during +that afternoon. On reaching the street, and looking at his watch, +George was amazed to find that it was past six o'clock. Moving as +briskly as it was wise to do, so as not to call attention to himself, +he made his way to where the noise of the multitude told him that +something extra was happening. + +He soon discovered that the excitement came from a kind of impromptu +mass meeting that had followed upon the appearance of Apleon riding on +his now celebrated black charger. + +The first thing which struck Bullen was the fact that, already, every +one seemed to be wearing the "Covenant" sign--"The Mark of the Beast." +He himself appeared to be the only person who was not wearing it. +And--was it fancy? or did Apleon's eyes fix on him with a momentary +scowl. + +The second thing which struck him, was the intense admiration and +homage of the great crowd--all classes alike seemed absolutely +infatuated--for this Emperor-Dictator of the world, Lucien Apleon, "The +Anti-christ." + +Two cries rose loud and laudatory from the multitude "Who is like +Apleon? Who dare oppose him?" It was the ultimate fruit of the +jingoism of the previous years! + +"This is what John beheld," Bullen told himself, "_all the world +wondered after the Beast_!" They are, already, worshipping him, in +their poor deluded hearts, as a God! + +Almost, it seemed to the young journalist as though there was headed up +in this one man--the Man of Sin--all that men through the by-gone ages +had worshipped. The captivating power of ancient Babylon. The mighty +prowess of the Medo-Persian, the power that held all the world in +subjection and awe. The Grecian polish. The Roman legal acumen, and +martial perfection. All these things seemed combined in this one +notable man. And added to all this, there was his resistless +attractiveness, his beauty of face, his grace of form, his wondrous +voice, his regal air--"_all the world wondered after him_." + +As, after awhile, he walked slowly homewards, George Bullen asked +himself the question: + +"How can it have come to pass, that in comparatively so short a time, +it should be possible for all the world to be ready to yield an almost +idolatrous obedience to one man?" + +Unconsciously to himself his pace slackened, it was as though his mind +had willed to have time to review things that should answer his +question, before he should reach his rooms, and the consideration +should be broken into. + +"There was first," he mused "that gradual falling away from the Truth +of God, for a full half of the nineteenth century--very gradual, very +slow, and very subtle at first, but growing bolder each year, until, in +the early part of the first decade of the twentieth century, men +calling themselves Christians, taking the salaries of Christian +ministers, openly denied every fundamental truth of the Bible--Sin, the +Fall, The Atonement, The Resurrection, the Immaculate Birth of Christ, +His Deity, the Personality of Satan, the Personality of The Holy +Spirit, and everything else in God's word which clashed with the flesh +of their unregenerate lives. + +"Then there was the giving heed to seducing spirits _and teachings of +demons_ (demonology, called spiritism) '_forbidding to marry_' +(doctrine of Lust, known as 'Free Love.') + +"Great forces were at work during the latter part of the nineteenth +century, and more especially in the early part of the twentieth, all of +which were preparing the way for the Anti-christ. + +"What blinded intellects called 'Progress,' was really Apostasy. And +Scientists, Materialists, and Humanists, and the _world's_ teachers +were all looking for some great outstanding genius, some super-man. + +"The Believing Church, before the 'Rapture,' had its Hope, a Hope given +by God of _A Man_ who should head all things up in Himself, and clothe +His Church with His own glory. And that Man came, the Man Christ +Jesus, the Lord of Glory. And all the time the world had _its_ hope, +and just as Christ, the Hope of the Church, said '_I will come again_,' +so He also said, as regards the world's hope, '_Another shall come in +his own name_,' and now--" + +George Bullen paused in his walking and looked back to where the +laudatory shouts of the deluded multitude, still rose around Apleon. + +"And now," he continued, "that other _has_ come, come in his own name, +and the world has received him. As late as nineteen hundred and eight, +one of the world's so-called 'great thinkers,' a D.D., too, said: + +"'We still wait for _The Genius_ who shall state our fundamental faith +in accordance with that insight which the _modern man_ has gained.' + +"That '_great thinker_,' if he is living, ought now to be satisfied, +for his '_Genius_' has appeared. And if he still possesses a Bible, +let him turn to Revelation, thirteen-eighteen, and he will know how all +his fancied man-progress was prophesied for nearly two thousand years +ago in the words: '_Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding +count the number of the beast; for it is_ THE NUMBER OF MAN; _and his +number is 666_.' + +"Oh, yes, in a hundred and one ways, the coming of the Anti-christ, and +the consequent worship of his Satanic-energized personality, was +well-paved; for the world relegated to the limbo of the past, God's +evangel as effete, superstitious, worn-out, and it was then prepared +for the Devil's lie, the Great Delusion." + +By this time George's feet had carried him to the door of the house. +He knocked, as arranged before leaving, three slow, deliberate knocks +and two others, sharp, quickly-following. + +Almost instantly Rose appeared at the door. She had prepared an +evening meal, and over the supper-table he told her all that he had +seen and heard, while out, adding: + +"The whole world will be abjectly at the feet of that man of Satan, +presently." + +For a few moments they talked on together, then she rose to clear the +table. His eyes followed her in all her movements, for, in spite of +her bruised stiffness, all that she did was done so deftly, and every +movement of her beautiful form was full of the grace of perfect ease. + +Now, almost for the first time, it came to him with full seriousness, +"What am I to do with her? since, saving her, housing her I have, to a +certain extent, made myself responsible for her?" + +When she returned to the room, after clearing the last thing from the +table, he said: + +"We must face your future, Rose! What are your plans, or haven't you +any?" + +"I am afraid I have no plans," she returned. "You see, good George, I +was so terrified at all I heard from my brother, that I simply got away +as quickly as I could, without any plan for the future, other than that +there has always been, at the back of my mind, an idea, that should I +ever (from any cause whatever) become a refugee, I should make my way +to England. For, rightly or wrongly; I believe the peoples of all the +world have always associated with England the two thoughts of safety +and liberty." + +Lifting her eyes to his, a bright smile filling all her face, she went +on: + +"I am not without money. I have nearly twenty-five pounds with me. +The question is, where would one--who would rather die than wear the +'Mark of the Beast'--be safest? In England, do you think?" + +"I don't know, Rose. _My_ place is there, because my _duty_ lies +there. And now that I have, I think, finished all that I can do here, +I ought to be getting back, at once. I ought, I think, to go to-night. +At ten-thirty there is a good service to the West, but I cannot leave +you alone here. I fear that death, in some way, must have overtaken +the people of this house, so that I cannot remain here, but must leave +the house to its fate. But about you, Rose? I cannot leave you, like +the house, to your fate!" + +With the absolute trust of a little child, she stretched her hands +towards him, saying: + +"Good George, my saviour already from one dreadful death, save me again +please. Take care of me until we get to England, take me with you, I +will be no expense to you, I will give no trouble, I will--" + +Her clinging, child-like trust moved him greatly. He took the two +pretty, plump little hands in his, and holding them in a clasp, firm +and tight, as though by his grip upon her he would give her an +assurance of safety, he said: + +"Take you with me, little one, of course I will. And now that is +settled we will talk over our plans, for I think we ought to leave by +that ten-thirty Western-bound service. Each hour after to-night, the +service will become more crowded, and we had better avoid the crowd, if +we can." + +George Bullen had never had much to do with women. No woman had ever +quickened by one extra beat his heart or pulse. Yet now he felt +himself strangely, mysteriously drawn to this sweet young Lebanon girl. +He realized that it was no time for love-making, yet he would have been +of marble not to have been moved by her trust in him, and by her sweet, +gracious personality. + +At ten-thirty that night they were clear of the place, and +homeward-bound to England. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +ANTI-"WE-ISM." + +Sir Archibald Carlyon, proprietor of the "Courier," and Ralph Bastin's +employer, had just arrived at the "Courier" office. The whilom +middle-aged, sprightly old man was as bowed and decrepit as a man of +ninety. + +As he entered the editorial private room, Ralph, for one instant, did +not recognize him. Then, as he realized who it was, he sprang forward +with an almost son-like solicitude, and helped him to a chair. + +"Sir Archibald, what has happened?" he cried. + +The old man lifted weary, hopeless eyes, out of which all the old-time +flash had gone, and nothing but heavy dullness remained. "Have _you_ +heard from my boy, from George?" he asked. + +"No, why, is there anything the matter, Sir Archibald?" Ralph's tones +were full of alarmed anxiety. + +The baronet's hand had been thrust into his breast-pocket, as he spoke. +He took out a letter and handing it to Ralph, groaned out the two words: + +"Read that!" + +Ralph caught his breath as his eyes took in the first lines: "Dear +Uncle, by the time you receive this, I shall be beyond _this_ life, +though _where_--in that outer world, that world beyond--I can--not +tell." + +Ralph had not turned to the signature, he knew the writing too well, +and knew it for bright, happy jocund George Carlyon's. He read on: + +"All that has happened in the world, of late, has driven me mad. Dear +old Tom Hammond wrote me fully of his change of heart, and besought me +to face the whole matter of my 'eternal destiny,' as he termed it. I +simply did not reply to his letter. Three days later he was taken, +with all those others, to God. Since then I have plunged into +everything trying to drown thought, and remorse, but I cannot, so I am +ending all--there's a mad thing to say, as if death could end all. +Though I do not doubt but what many other fellows will do what I am +doing now. Good bye, good old Hunky Archie, + + "Your unhappy, rotten, + "GEORGE." + + +As Ralph lifted his eyes from the paper he found Sir Archibald's fixed +upon him, and the anguish in the poor old dull eyes drew tears to +Ralph's. + +"We found him," cried the old man, "in the boathouse, by the lake, with +a bullet through his temples. My poor boy! My noble boy!" + +Dry-eyes, but with a soul full of anguish, his features, too, twisted +with the anguish of his soul, the old man rocked himself for a moment +in his chair. + +Looking up suddenly, he startled Ralph by the bitterness of his tones, +as he said: + +"God forgive me! But I could find it easy to curse our clergy, our +ministers, our bishops, our teachers, for that when we looked to them, +and _paid_ them, to tell us the right, the true thing, they let us go +on deluded by the belief that attendance upon the _outward form_ was +sufficient to make us sure of Heaven in the future. Why, Bastin, good +fellow, do you know that more than half of the clergymen with whom I +was _well_ acquainted, are among those whom God has left behind, and +not one of those whom I know, thus left, has a mite of concern about +their state, but seem to have gone right over to the Devil, if I may so +say it. What does it all mean?" + +Ralph began to speak kindly, sympathetically to him, but the old man +suddenly interrupted with: + +"And yesterday's article in 'the Courier' upon the opening of that +Temple at Jerusalem, with all that about the 'Mark of the Beast;' that +mock (I suppose it was _mock_) miracle, with the fire consuming the +sacrifice, and then that awful portent of darkness, thunder, and +lightning--but no rain. It reminded me of the scene at Calvary, when +the Christ was crucified. What _does_ it all mean, Bastin?" + +"What I have said in that article, I believe, Sir Archibald. The +events in Jerusalem, during the last three days are the beginning of +the reign of Anti-christ. For years, blinded by Satan whom most of us, +unknowingly, served, and blinded by what we termed the 'Progress of the +Age,' and of the World, but which ought to have been recognized for +what it really was, the growing of the Apostasy, which has now begun to +be avowed and absolutely universal--blinded, I say, by all this, Sir +Archibald, we suffered many mighty forces to stealthily, powerfully +work together so that the climax that has come upon us, was made +absolutely easy. + +"If we had known our Bibles only a tithe as well as we knew our +newspapers, we should have seen that all we were glorying in, under the +name of 'Progress,' was but a perfecting of human systems, leaving God, +and His purposes, and His plans utterly out of the question. We went +to our churches, our chapels, we had a '_form_ of Godliness,' but we +tacitly, and controversally, in print and speech, 'denied the _power_ +thereof.' We not only made it possible, but easy 'for one man of +Master-mind to assume universal dominion, and to be the object of +universal worship, as Apleon, the Anti-christ, soon will be.' + +"And now, Sir Archibald, we are on the eve of a gigantic blend of all +religions, with all commercial undertakings. The more I study God's +word in the light of all that is happening, the more clearly I see this. + +"How often, in the old days--say from the mid-eighties--professing +Christian men, when expostulated with as to the difference between +their professed creed of the Sunday, and their daily practice in +business, would say, 'oh, bosh! religion is one thing, business is +another!' Then, as the years moved on, all kinds of trading concerns +sprang up professedly religious, and conducted on professedly religious +lines. But even the truest Seers in the Church of God would hardly +have dared to predict that in a comparatively few years the final +outcome of this trend in events would be an absolute coalescence into +one vast system of the world's many religious systems and of the +world's commerce. The most that the Seers of God, in His church, dared +to say of the future was that the _principle_ of such a _combined_ +system was suggested by the text of Rev. xiii. For the second Beast +'caused the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first +Beast . . . . And he had power . . . to cause that as many as would +not worship the image of the Beast should be killed. And he causeth +all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a +mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads, and _that no man might +buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or +the number of his name_.' Here, for nearly two thousand years, was the +principle of this Hell-devised, Devil-developed combined system of +religion and commerce, prophesied, but now few even of God's choicest +saints realized all that would mean. + +"The nineteenth and early twentieth century Christendom had lost the +Bible ideal of Christianity, and had substituted a very material idea +for God's idea. The two decades--last of the nineteenth, and first of +the twentieth centuries--were marked by immense religious activities, +but while a merely religious movement might manufacture a Christendom, +it could never make Christians. + +"To be religious is one thing to be a Christian quite another thing. +The vast bulk of the members of the so-called Christian Churches of +those years, had never been born again from above. + +"Christian in name (by virtue of membership in a Church; or by virtue +of their subscription to a creed; or by a careful attendance upon the +forms of their own particular church) they were yet _only religious_, +because God's word regards those only as _Christians_ in whom Christ +indwells, and none can be indwelt by Christ save those into whom He has +come in the birth from above. ('Born again' ones.) '_Except_ a man be +born again, he CANNOT _see_ the Kingdom of God' much more live in it. + +"'That which is born of the _flesh_ is flesh,' and 'flesh and blood +cannot inherit the Kingdom of God,' but only those _spiritually_ +born--born from above. We only become Christians by _re_-generation. + +"In the years immediately before the 'Rapture,' _professing_ +Christians, and even _professedly_ Christian ministers, men who had +taken vows before God to preach the 'whole counsel of God,' and who +received their salary avowedly for this purpose, scouted, and often +publicly denied the necessity of the New Birth. Blind leaders of the +blind, they surely will have the greater punishment. + +"But to return to the other thought. + +"The last twenty years of the nineteenth century, and more so the first +ten years of the twentieth century, was marked as an age of +centralization and concentration of all kinds of interests, commercial, +and religious. Each year, the trusts and monopolies in the commercial +world became more and more concentrated, until it has become perfectly +easy for Lucien Apleon, Emperor-Dictator of the World, to govern and +control (from that beautiful, hellish city, Babylon the great,) every +business interest in the world. + +"Two days ago, at Jerusalem, the 'Covenant Sign'--so called--but which +God calls the 'Mark of the Beast'--was donned by three or four million +people, in the _holiday_ spirit. But what was donned voluntarily, in a +holiday spirit, forty-eight hours ago, will have to be _branded_ on +every one's person in the universe in three and a half years time--or +less--or else the refuser of the degradation will have to seal his or +her loyalty to God by their life. + +"In three and a half years from now, Sir Archibald, the image of Lucien +Apleon, will be set up in the Temple of Jerusalem, and, I believe, in +every other great religious centre of the World--St. Peter's, Rome; St. +Paul's, London; and so on in all our great cities, and world centres. +I have been studying this subject naturally, and I find that one great +scholar (Hengstenberg) says, that though _one_ image is spoken of, yet +having regard to the sense of the original, 'a multitude of images is +meant.'" + +"But _religiously_, Bastin, religiously?" cried the old man. "How did +the condition of things in the end of the nineteenth, and the beginning +of the twentieth centuries, help to make it possible for all the world +presently to _worship_ the Beast, and his image?" + +There was an almost childish querulousness of tone in the old baronet's +questioning. + +"All those years," began Ralph, "were marked by a wonderful activity on +new lines of deliverance for the human race, from the ills that had +grown up around the vast bulk of that race. God's plan was for man's +_regeneration_, a change of heart and life--a working from the centre +to the circumference. But the churches--_all_ denominations--of the +years we are speaking about, began endless schemes of deliverance that +the man, as they hoped, might be changed from the _out_side--that is to +say, man's idea of benefitting man was by an _outward_ reform. + +"They failed to recognize the fundamental fact that all the 'Ills of +Humanity,' so called, proceeded from man's natural depravity, from man +_himself_, and not from his environment. We failed to see that a +_reformed_ race would only mean a perpetuation of all the old natural +lusts, and presently, bring about a return to the old condition of +things, while a _regenerated_ race would hold reform in it, and that +that reform would not only be perpetual, but ever increasing in its +perfecting. + +"Then, too, the great religious denominations became fired with the +idea of a consolidating, unifying process that should smelt down all +denominations into one. To do this every type of religion should find +a place. What would it matter if one or more of the religions denied +the Deity of Christ? that others did not accept the Bible as the +Inspired word of God and so on? 'The doctrine of Christ,' was +gradually eliminated from almost all preaching and the doctrine of a +divine humanism--'The divinity of man,' became largely the new cult. + +"I believe, from all that I can gather, one of the first steps towards +this elimination of 'the doctrine of Christ,' could be traced in the +continued elimination from the various denominational hymn-books (as +_new_ ones were issued beginning as far back as the late seventies) of +hymns relating to the facts of the Atonement and other kindred +subjects, and the substitution of odes, poems, etc., in which +aspiration took the place of experimental religion. The hymn-books of +more than one, or two, or three denominations, showed this retrograde +movement, through their several successive issues. + +"Then, side by side with this _Anti_-christian movement, there went on +silently that gathering out from the world, and from the merely +professing Christian church, those who were, by virtue of their New +Birth, through faith in Christ, the recipients of Eternal life, and +who, when that glorious 'Rapture' took place awhile ago, were caught up +into the air as a _body_ of living believers to be joined for ever, to +their head--Christ; thus robbing the world of what Christ Himself +called 'the salt of the earth.'" + +With a groan, Sir Archibald cried: + +"God help us, Bastin! What fools we were!" + +Then with a weary upward look into Ralph's face, he rose to his feet, +saying: + +"I must be going. I've arranged to meet the lawyers in half-an-hour +from now. Good-bye, dear fellow. I will come up to town to see you, +or you must come down to see me, before the wind-up of the paper. +Good-bye." + +The two men wrung each other's hand, then parted. + +Ten minutes later George Bullen and Rose arrived. Amazed to see his +friend with an extraordinary beautiful girl, Ralph was presently +listening to all the wonderful story of their meeting, etc. + +Later on, when, for a moment or two, the two men were alone together, +in the inner room, Ralph asked George what he proposed to do with the +beautiful girl? + +"There is but one thing I can do," he replied. "I must marry her, and +that soon. It is no time, in the ordinary sense, to be thinking of +'marrying and giving in marriage,' yet, under the circumstances, I can +do no other. I care for her already, as I never cared for any woman, +and her affection for me is touching in its clingingness." + +He smiled a little sadly, as he added: + +"It is well that there is a little company of us here in London, +Believers in God, and therefore believers in marriage." + + * * * * * * + +George Bullen and Rose were married within the week of their landing in +England. The ceremony took place in a little company of believers, who +gathered on Sunday (old-count of time) and once on a week-night, in a +little hall that had been used for a Sunday School in the old days. +Sunday Schools, like many of the other religious institutions, of the +old days before the "Rapture," were quite a thing of the past. + +Marriage was one of the things of the past. Some years before the +"Rapture," a booklet entitled "We-ism" had been published, in which the +author had unblushingly declared: "Women, _absolved from shame_, +servitude, and inequality, shall be enfranchised, owners of themselves +* * * We believe in the sacredness of the family and the home, _the +legitimacy of every child_, and the inalienable right of every woman to +the absolute possession of herself." + +The doctrines and practice of "affinity," the "problem" plays, and +"sex" novels, of the first decade of the twentieth century, had all +materially helped to make the unregenerate mind and heart ready to +receive "free love" in its widest, grossest forms. While a certain +teaching of "Christian Science" had had an overwhelming power in the +same direction.[1] + +All these forces had helped to make the doctrine of illicit love +acceptable in these early days of the Anti-christ reign, so that it was +only among the little gatherings of true Believers, that marriage was +sanctified into the sacrament it had been in the _good, true_ old days. + + + +[1] We prefer, in a book of this character, to keep back the actual +terms of the filthy statement. Author. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +"THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION." + +The three-and-a-half years since the Covenant with Lucien Apleon, on +the night before the opening at the Temple in Jerusalem, had been +signed, had practically expired. + +God's judgments had been seen in many ways upon the earth during these +forty-two months. The position which Apleon now held, as the "World's +Dictator," had not been the work of a day. Wars, no longer local, but +practically universal had, for many long months at a time, been the +order of the history of the world. "Nation shall rise against nation, +and kingdom against kingdom." + +These wars occupying only months at this period, would have occupied +scores of years had they been events of the mid-nineteenth century. +But with the perfection of hideousness--one might safely write +_Hellishness_--of war's latest devices the work of destruction, and +almost annihilation became short and sharp. + +Aerial warfare helped to bring about this consummation more speedily. +The firing of a bomb or of a torpedo from an aerial war engine often +accomplished in an hour what could not have been accomplished, a few +years before, under months, often years of old-fashioned war. + +These fearful conflicts were not confined to those of kingdom and +nation against kingdom and nation, but citizens of one city fought with +themselves, civil war was "on the rampage." The lust of war, the lust +of blood, born of vile passions, burned in the breasts of men and +women--for with the growth of the "woman's rights" question, and the +establishment of the "equality of the sexes," bands of women fought +bands of women. + +These Amazons, indeed, wrought even fouler cruelties and butcheries +than the men, for as there is no fouler odour under the sun than that +of rotted lilies, so the depths to which "the lilies of the human +kind"--women--will descend is fouler and deeper than the abysses of +fall of men. + +The hideous wars--international, civil, and _personal_ +conflicts--resulted, as wars ever do, in famine and pestilence. Only +in this case, these later horrors had been fearfully aggravated, +terribly prolonged. + +The picture of the famine is most striking. The rider of the black +horse is shown bearing a pair of scales, typifying the exactitude of +weight--for single grains counted in these days. A man's full day's +wage would purchase only a pint and a half of wheat (a choenix) and +that would form but a _scant_ feeding for the day for himself. But +there will then not be wheat enough to go round, and people will hail +barley with the rapture of starving souls. + +The tendency of the days in which we write these lines, is an +ever-increasing luxury in eating and drinking, and this, too, among all +classes. + +That tendency will increase more and more, so that the inhabitants of +the famine stricken earth will feel scarcity more than they would +otherwise have done. + +The pestilence followed the famine, until from war, famine, and +pestilence a fourth of the entire population of the earth was swept +away. + +During the last twelve months quite a crop of false Christs had arisen. +Each of these, in his turn, had had a certain following for a brief +period, and each had had an untimely end. + +The only really notable impostor was a man who had suddenly appeared in +London, and who had immediately attracted immense attention. His +knowledge of scripture, of the prophecies especially, was marvellous to +those whom he addressed. No one ever attempted to verify his +quotations, much less his connections of scriptures. For as Jannes and +Jambres, Pharaoh's two chief Magicians, withstood Moses by demonology +and jugglery, so, by a hellish jugglery, did "Conrad the Conqueror" (as +this false Christ styled himself) juggle with the scriptures. + +Apleon, the Anti-christ, had, apparently, taken no notice of any of the +petty tribe of mushroom-like false Christs. That he was well +acquainted with the sayings and doings of each of them goes without +saying, as it was equally so as regarded this more presumptious of the +crew "Conrad the Conqueror." There were many, in London especially, +who wondered that Apleon did not appear and refute this man's claims, +if they had no foundation. + +The evident success of the imposter wrought his own downfall. Inflated +with his success he publicly declared that Apleon would perish beneath +a blast of his (Conrad's) nostrils, and announced that on a certain +evening at ten o'clock on St. Paul's steps he would publicly re-state +his claims, and also defy Apleon. + +In the first year after the Rapture, the whole of the shops and +warehouses on both sides of Ludgate hill, with all the purlieus at the +back of each range of buildings, had been demolished, so that a huge +open space, spreading fan shape, (the handle at St. Paul's) swept out, +ever-widening, on the left as far as the approach of Blackfriar's +Bridge, on the right through Farringdon Street to the Viaduct Bridge. + +Within this space a million people could not only have congregated, but +have heard distinctly, without any effort, the merest whisper spoken +into the latest phone discovery the "Hearit." As, too, every bit of +that open space was many yards below the level of St. Paul's steps, +every one had a perfect view of all that transpired there. + +The night in question, when the latest and greatest of the false +Christs, "Conrad the Conqueror," had arranged to defy Apleon, proved to +be exceptionally dark. + +Three quarters of a million people were gathered in "The Fan"--that +open space had been christened "The Fan" on account of its shape. It +was admirably lit by the new light "Radiance," while a perfect blaze of +radiance illumined the huge scarlet-covered, scarlet-draped platform +that had been erected immediately in front of the steps of the +Cathedral. (It was all very stagey, very theatrical, but then that was +characteristic of the new age and regime.) + +The false Christ appeared, and was greeted with a curious mixture of +groans and hisses, and of cheers. (A keen judge might have been +pardoned if he had said that the bulk of the cheers were ironical.) + +Speaking in his ordinary voice, the suction plates of the "Hearit" +transmitted his words to the farthest remove of that "Fan" so that all +could easily hear. + +With a kind of gentle gravity, at first, he began by saying: + +"Nearly nineteen hundred years ago when I walked this earth, at my +first advent, I warned my disciples--and through them the world--that +many false Christs would come, but when it was said 'Lo, here!' or 'Lo, +there!' that they were not to go hither and thither, many of these +false Christs have appeared, and have tried to lead the people astray. +Oh foolish people! How easily were they bewitched! And how worse than +foolish the imposters were. They might have known that I should not +have suffered them to take My Name in vain." + +For ten minutes he talked thus, then suddenly changed his tone, and +raising his right arm--it was long, thin, gaunt, and the wide-flowing +sleeve of his white seamless robe, fell back showing the lean limb +almost to the shoulder--he poured out a defiant speech against Apleon, +adding "I have challenged! I wait for my challenge to be accepted." + +A sudden, awesome silence fell upon all the gathered, listening +thousands. They had not long to wait, for in that same instant a +fierce crimson light shone in the dark heavens above them, and looking +up they saw a fiery ruby scroll like flame rushing downwards through +the sky. + +An instant later the fiery scroll resolved itself into the characters +of the "Covenant Sign" ("The Mark of the Beast.") With a swoop, like +that of some crimson Albatross, the thing descended until it seemed +almost to touch the platform where the challenger "Conrad" stood. +Then, to the amaze and delight of the vast audience in "The Fan," out +from convolutions of the central sign of the "Mark," Apleon stepped on +to the platform. + +His aerial chair (on this occasion made in the form of his own "number +and sign") rose swiftly again and hovered mid-air. + +The false Christ was as white of face as his robe. He visibly cowered +and shrank before the coming of the giant figure of the World's +Dictator, as the latter strode in three long strides across the +platform. + +For one brief second, amid the hush and silence of the absolute awe +that rested on the mighty audience, challenger and challenged stood +facing each other. Then Apleon's voice was heard, as with a sweep of +his hand he uttered the one word: + +"PERISH, thou Fool!" + +As his hand swept the air in the direction of the false Prophet, a wide +sheet of flame leaped out of space, enveloped the white-robed figure, +and it was instantly consumed. As at the burning of the sacrificial +lamb at the dedication of the temple at Jerusalem, so now, the flame +that had consumed the challenging imposter floated a yard or two over +the spot where he had stood, and slowly resolved itself into "The Sign +of the Covenant" ("Mark of the Beast,") in pure ruby flame. + +"_He doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven +on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the +earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do._" + +Apleon turned towards the mighty gathering, and said triumphantly: "So +perish all impostors!" + +A thunder of cheers rose from three quarters of a million throats! +Instantly followed by the chorus of the Apleon ode! + + "Hail! Hail! Hail Man of Men! + World's Deliverer! + APLEON!" + + +Like a living thing of writhing flames, the brilliant car swept +downwards from the sky, where it had waited. Almost, it seemed to skim +the scarlet floor of the platform and to scoop up its owner, for none +saw Apleon lift a foot to step into it, yet the next moment he was +soaring away seated within the upper convolution of the serpent sign. + +For hours, thousands of the people remained within the sweep of the +great "Fan," talking of all that had occurred, and more absolutely +convinced than ever that Apleon was God--_their_ God. + +Thrice during the next hour after Apleon's departure, three separate +faithful souls--one of the three a woman--raised a testimony against +the Man of Sin. But each one met with death within thirty seconds of +their first utterance. + +"_And white robes were given unto everyone of them; and it was said +unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their +fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they +were, should be fulfilled._" + +There were, scattered over all the earth, many thousands of believers +in God, praying "Thy kingdom come." Many of these had turned to God +during the first days of the shock of realization of "things as they +truly were," when the "Church" had been translated to the heavenlies. + +The number of these believers had been added to considerably, during +the awful times of war, pestilence and famine, for these horrors (so +plainly predicted in the word of God) had taught them to read their +Bibles with new eyes, and to receive its truths and obey them. Of +these believers, many had been, and many, many more were yet to be +"_slain on account of the Word of God, and on account of the testimony +which they held fast_. + +The whole of the three-and-a-half years had been rife with growing +horrors, with licentiousness, and every evil possible to the +unregenerate mind, and heart, and life, when full license is given to +them. + +The license and indulgence permitted--even arranged for, in the first +instance--by the apostate church with a view to the more perfect +enslavement of the world's worshippers, had brought forth a full +harvest of evil. The effect of license is disorder, and presently +anarchy. For three-years-and-a-half the apostate church had grown in +assumption and in all abominations, and the effects of the license +permitted, and _fearfully abused_, had produced a condition of things +which became such an intolerable burden, that the time had become ripe +for the authority in all this, to be destroyed. + +The apostate church was the cause and the authority for all the excess +of evil of the times, hence the ten-kingdomed confederacy which had at +first buttressed the impious system, now, by united action, destroyed +it. "_And the ten horns which thou sawest, and the Beast, these shall +hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat +her flesh, and shall BURN HER UTTERLY WITH FIRE. For God did put in +their hearts to do His mind, AND TO COME TO ONE MIND, and to give their +Kingdom unto the Beast, until the words of God shall be accomplished._" +(Rev. 17:16-17) + +"Man is a religious animal!" And Lucien Apleon, endowed with special +wisdom of his father and Master--the Devil--recognized this necessity +for a religion from the outset of his career. + +The Devil has always recognized religion, encouraged it, and has even +instigated it in a hundred forms, during the last 6,000 years. Only +every effort of his Satanic power and force has been directed towards +the luring of the religious soul _away from God_. The Devil is a +Ritualist! He loves to entangle souls in a ritual, and the more +sensuous the ritual, the better he is pleased, because such +sensuousness and ritualism ministers to the "flesh," and while men and +women's religion is fleshly, it cannot be spiritual. And the FATHER +seeketh spiritual worshippers, "for they that worship Him, must worship +Him in Spirit and in Truth." Then, too, Satan knows that all +religiousness that is of the "flesh," tends to make its devotees +anxious for the development of a good-self within them, while true, +spiritual life _in Christ_, leads to the continual consciousness that +"_in me, that is IN MY FLESH, dwelleth no good thing_." + +Lucien Apleon encouraged religion, but not the religion of the Lord +Jesus Christ--for he, Apleon was The _Anti_-Christ. It was he, with +his emissaries, taught and guided by Satan, the Arch-enemy of God, and +of His Christ, that had subtlety, secretly energized the +world-religion, that followed the taking away of the church. That +world-wide system had been an amalgamation of all the then existing +false systems of religion. With the taking away of the church every +type of license had been gradually permitted to the worshippers in the +churches of this infernal system, until, at last, as we have seen, the +governments had been compelled to abolish what at first they had helped +to establish--for license had bred such a character and temper in the +peoples that it became a menace to all order. + +All this was part of Satan's organized plan, for, when the moment of +the crushing out of this licentious, abominable religious system +arrived, his plans, as regarded Lucien Apleon, The Anti-christ, were so +perfected, by the ripeness of the world for the Anti-christ rule, that +all else seemed plain sailing. + +The poor, duped world knew Apleon only as the great SUPER-MAN, "long +looked-for, come at last," the World's Deliverer, who was presently to +be universally acclaimed as the World's Dictator. + +The world had long been familiar with the system of private chaplains +attached to great men's households. It was familiar knowledge to them +that Dan, the Free-booter, (in the days of "The Judges") must needs +have a renegade, runaway Levite for a priest, his salary thirty +shillings a year, a suit of clothes and his victuals (as much as a +renegade was worth). Absalom could do little, in his revolt, without +the religious brand, so must needs have Ahithophel. And down to their +own times, the World, at the period of Apleon's coming, was familiar +with private chaplains. + +Apleon's chaplain, a swarthy-skinned Jew (to all outward appearance,) +was undoubtedly like Apleon himself, a Satanic resurrection, or if not +a resurrection, certainly energized by the same infernal power. The +Holy Ghost calls this man "The False Prophet." He exercised all the +authority of Anti-christ, "_in his presence_," as well as in his +absence. _Eight_ times the emphatic word "_he causeth_" is written of +him, by the Holy Spirit, and a more hideous, lying, extraordinarily +wicked catalogue of deeds is no where else to be found in the world's +history: + +"_He causeth the earth, and those that dwell in it_," (does that refer +to the foul spirits who dwell in that awful under-world, from which we +believe the Anti-Christ, as Judas re-incarnated came, or does it refer +only to dwellers on the earth? It may well mean _both_!)--"_To worship +the first beast_." + +As well as his co-associate, Apleon--The Anti-christ, the false Prophet +not only claimed the power to work miracles, but he _did_ work them, +showing a baleful but powerful supernatural control over the forces of +nature. "_And he doeth great miracles . . . And he deceiveth those +that dwell ON the earth by reason of the signs which it was given him +to work in the presence of the Beast_." In Egypt, three thousand four +hundred or more years ago, it was demonstrated by Jannes and Jambres +that there is a supernaturalism of the Devil, as well as of God, +_against_, as well as _for_ God. + +Both Anti-christ and his subaltern, the false prophet, dealt largely in +the miracle of fire. The _two witnesses_, who had testified that they +had come from God, had consumed their persecutors, again and again by +fire, and the Hell-born imposters felt the necessity of showing that +they, too, could command fire. + +Utterly destroyed by the ten kings, the world was without an organized +religion, and was ready for the fouler, fuller rule of Satan--the +worship of Anti-christ, and his image. + +As God had ever had a Trinity of personality and power in Himself, so +Satan in his damnable, deceivable counterfeiting has now _his_ trinity. +Himself (Satan) the embodiment of evil, the suggester, creator, +energizer, he makes a _mock_ Christ--Apleon, the Anti-christ, answers +to the second Person of the divine Trinity. While Apleon's chaplain, +the false prophet, answers to the third person of the divine Trinity. + +Energized by Satan, even as Anti-christ himself is, the false Prophet +becomes a mighty force among the world's peoples, persuading them that +Apleon really is God, and worthy of worship. The whole world has seen +and heard of the marvellous miracles of "The Prophet," as he is called. + +The infatuation of all the world for the Man of Sin, Lucien Apleon, was +almost absolute and complete. He ruled the world, every department of +it--social, political, commercial, religious. He blasphemed God. He +blasphemed the translated Church that occupied the Heavenlies with her +Lord. + +Day by day, week by week, month by month he grew bolder, more impious, +more cruel, more persecuting to the saints that were then living to God. + +And through all this time Enoch and Elijah continued their "witness" +for their Lord. As judgment prophets, they had been sent in this age +of judgment, to resist the awful, the gigantic blasphemies of +Anti-christ, and to give to the poor, vain, deluded world its last +awful warning. For bad as had been the apostate Church, so recently +destroyed, the worship of Anti-christ himself, would be infamously more +impious. + +The world hated them, yet _feared_ the two witnesses. More than once +when blatant blasphemers, agents of Apleon, had openly opposed them, +and cursed them and their witnessing, these witnesses of Jesus Christ, +"_the faithful and true witness_," had sent forth fire from themselves +and consumed their enemies. And the world had learned to fear them, +though they ignored their warnings. + +Many times, too, they had wrought fearful, havoc-making miracles, so +that as it was with the Egyptians so, the days of Moses, so it came to +be with all the peoples who witnessed the miracles of these prophets, +Enoch and Elijah, for they shut the Heaven, in many places, "that rain +should not fall during the days of their prophesying." They turned the +waters into blood, and "smote the earth with every plague as often as +they willed." Until the people hated, and _feared_ them, yet, all the +time, they hardened themselves against God, and the testimony of the +two prophets, as Pharaoh hardened himself against God. + +The multitudes learned that though they were absolutely powerless to +hurt the TWO WITNESSES themselves, yet, given that THE WITNESSES were +not present the mob found that they could work their will upon their +followers--and they did, continually. + +It was the morning before the great event that had been announced, the +nature of the coming event was not known, though a hundred speculations +were rife. The city was astir early, for the night had been too sultry +for much sleeping, and everyone was more or less excited, as to what +would be the great event which the next thirty hours--more or less--was +to bring. As the sun mounted higher and higher the whole of the +districts around the city belched forth their tens of thousands of +curious people of every nationality, their goal the city itself. + +Suddenly--the suddenness was like some magical effect--the two +worst-hated beings in all the world, appeared on a mound of marble +blocks, within a hundred yards of and _out_side the Jaffa Gate. + +They were God's two gracious, faithful WITNESSES. The multitudes began +to converge towards the spot where they had suddenly appeared. (It was +a curious fact, however much people might hate the testimony of the TWO +WITNESSES they seemed to have no power to pass on, when once the men of +God began to preach.) + +"Men and brethren of every clime," rang out the voice of Enoch. "Once +again, in the name of Jehovah--Jesus, we lift our voices to warn you of +the shortness of the time left unto you in which to repent, and to turn +unto God. + +"Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die? as die you certainly will under +the breath of the Christ, when He presently shall come--for He shall +'slay with the breath of His mouth.' + +"We preach not the gospel of the grace of God which, aforetime, before +'The Rapture,' was preached, that gospel which was good news of glad +tidings to all sinners. That gospel told how He had lived on earth for +over thirty-years--God inhabiting a human body, for God was in Christ +reconciling the world unto Himself--it told how He died a death of +shame and agony, a substitute for sinners, so that whosoever should +believe on Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. And as +many as believed on Him gave He power to become the sons of God. + +"It told of His coming again to receive all those sons of God, dead or +living, unto Himself in the Heavenlies. Less than four years ago He +came. Thousands who knew the truth, but had not accepted it, before He +came, did so after the RAPTURE of the saints, and thousands of those +have already sealed, and many more thousands will yet, seal their faith +with their blood. + +"The days of our testimony draws shorter now, we have few more +opportunities of warning you, and of witnessing to our God. But here, +once more, this morning, we preach unto you the gospel of the Kingdom. +The gospel of the coming Kingdom of Christ. + +"'For He shall reign whose right it is, and of His kingdom of peace, +and joy, and love there shall be no end.' For nearly two thousand +years men have prayed 'Thy kingdom come.' It is coming soon, but +before He begins His reign, He shall put down all enemies under His +feet. None will be able to hide from Him for His eyes will be as a +flame of fire. + +"Those who will _now_ seek Him, accept Him as their king, whether He +comes in their life-time, or whether they lay down their lives as +faithful witnesses to His coming, all such we proclaim, shall live the +glorious life which He has for such." + +The crowd numbered a hundred thousand now, and the majority of them +kept up a sullen murmur against the preaching. + +A native prince of a notable eastern realm, plucked a javelin-type of +weapon from his cumberband and hurled it full into the face of the +preacher. It never reached its mark, but, boomerang like, it returned +to the thrower and shattered and entered his right temple. + +But for the density of the crowd, the eastern would have dropped to the +earth like a stone--for he was dead. + +A way was made for a few to drag the body clear of the mob, then, once +clear, those who dragged it thence returned to the crowd. "Without +natural affection,"--a trait of the Times--had degenerated into +"without common humanity." + +For half-an-hour longer THE TWO WITNESSES preached, warned, pleaded +with the multitude. Then they stepped from the pile of marble blocks, +and passed quietly away. + +As was customary after every such session of testimony, the crowd split +up into many groups and discussed the whole situation. + +On this occasion some five hundred men and women, mostly Jews, who had +received the testimony,[1] were moving off in a body, when an unlocked +for incident occurred. + +Through all the witnessing of God's two prophets, there had stood among +the listening crowd, a tall, swarthy-faced man, richly attired, a Jew +by race, (that was evident from the marked Hebrew lines of his face). +The expression of his face, during the WITNESSING, had alternated +between mocking and rage. Now his eyes followed the departing band of +men and women who were loyal to the Gospel of the Kingdom. + +With a scornful, devilish laugh, he pointed to the departing people, as +he cried: "If we cannot kill the spawn that preaches, why not kill the +hatched-out ones?" + +The crowd was ripe for anything. With a roar, like unto Hell itself, +they raced after the godly band and in a moment surrounded them, +brandishing the long murderous knives of the east, and revolvers of the +west. + +The foul work of wiping out the whole band of faithful ones began. +Every shot went home, every knife found a faithful heart. The twin +lusts of hate and of religious fanaticism burned in the breasts of the +mob. It was a carnival of cruelty and blood. Everyone wanted to see +it. Other thousands hearing the sound of the shots, poured through the +gates of the city. Everyone wanted a sight of the _entertainment_--for +this the slaying was regarded, as, of old-time, Rome entertained +herself by filling the eighty thousand seats of the great theatre, to +see the Christians thrown to the lions. + +There was not a coign of vantage to which the mob did not climb. They +climbed upon the roofs, the balconies, held themselves perilously upon +the sloping verandas, they stood upon window-sills, and hung from +electric light pillars, and tram-line standards. They shouted, and +sang, and urged upon the slayers to mutilate as well as kill "the +carrion." + +Then, suddenly, above all the din, and above even the crack of +revolvers, the great song of Apleon, that foul ode of idolatrous +laudation, set to most wonderful music, rang out from thousands of +excited throats. The song was Hell-born, and hellishly sung. + +When, a moment later the whole mob had trampled upon the slain +believers--wantonly, heedlessly trod upon them,--in their passage +towards the city, the swarthy Jew who had incited the crowd to their +deed of blood, lit a cigarette, and crossed to where his aerial-chair +waited him. He stepped into the upholstered seat, and turned his head +to watch the mob, then with that evil laugh of his, he muttered: "Men +are but sheep after all, and will follow any bell-wether!" + +To his waiting driver, he said: "Esdraelon." The next moment the chair +rose in the air, and like some wondrous bird soared away, northwards. + +The swarthy Jew was Apleon's Chaplain, the false prophet. + +Jerusalem was enormously crowded. Thousands upon thousands of people +had come up from Babylon, as well as from every part of the world. The +news had been flashed all over the earth, that some world-important +event in connection with the Emperor-Dictator, would take place during +this last week of the first three-and-a-half years of the "Great +Covenant." + +At the time of the offering of the Morning Lamb, just as the course of +officiating priests were preparing for the slaughter of the lamb, +Apleon's resident viceroy, entered the Temple enclosure, followed by a +military detachment, and, accompanied by Apleon's chaplain, he whom God +the Holy Ghost has called the false Prophet. The latter ordered the +priest in charge of the "Course," to cease the offering, and to the +amazed protest of the priest, he laughed scornfully, vouchsafing no +other explanation than that it was his and the Emperor's command, that +_all_ Jewish worship-ritual should cease. + +The priests could do no other than obey the command, enforced, as it +was, by the presence of the Viceroy, _and the military force_. + +The High-Priest lived a mile away from the Temple. One of the minor +officials went off to apprise him of this strange new order. + +As the man made his way down the marble road to the city level, he met +a ponderous motor-driven trolley of great length--the thing was +evidently bound for the Temple. Two hundred workmen followed behind +the trolley, and the Temple-messenger noticed that on the trolley, +lying beside the huge coffin-like packing-case that formed its chief +burden, were a number of hoisting and hauling tackles, with a pile of +handspikes, jacks, etc. + +It was an hour before the messenger returned, the High-Priest +accompanying him. By that time wonders--infernal wonders--had been +wrought. + +From the packing case there had been taken a gigantic image of Lucien +Apleon, and it had been reared upon a plinth of dark green marble, upon +the tessellated platform _within_ the Temple. + +The statue was of gold, and upon the green marble plinth was engraved: +"I AM THAT I AM!" + +In amazed, frightened horror, the High-Priest gazed for one moment upon +the idolatrous abomination, then, as his blood boiled with a holy, +righteous indignation, he thundered forth the words: + +"Thou shalt have no other God before me. + +"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, . . . . Thou shalt +not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am +a jealous God--." + +"Take that foul, idolatrous thing hence!" he cried, with passionate +warmth. His eyes were fixed upon Apleon's chaplain, (the false +Prophet) whose mocking smile, as he stood by the gang of workmen, +angered him beyond measure. + +Not a man moved at the order of the High-Priest, and he thundered forth +his command again: + +"Take that abomination down, and hence, or I will call upon Jehovah to +send His judgment fire down and consume you all, and the idol as well." + +With a blasphemous oath, the false Prophet, spat in the forehead of the +fulminating Priest, and hissed: + +"Silence, fool, idiot, driveller!" + +As the foul spittle touched the face of the Priest, he fell prone upon +his back on the pavement of the Temple. A dead hush fell upon everyone +present, for as they gazed upon the face of the dead Priest they saw +that the whole forehead became filled with the "Mark of the Beast." + +The silence of this awesome hush was suddenly, startlingly broken by a +peal of mocking laughter. It came from Lucien Apleon's deputy, the +false Prophet. + +Then, more startling still, the lips of the golden image parted, and in +deep, solemn tones the idol cried: + +"So perish all who shall dare to oppose the Emperor Lucien's will." + +This was no trick. It was not a mechanical device within the image. +It was not a clever piece of ventriloquism. Of this we are +assured--the image actually spoke. God's word cannot lie, and John, +under the command of God, wrote it down: "_It was given the false +Prophet to give spirit to the image of the Beast, that the image of the +Beast should even speak_." + +"_To give SPIRIT to the image_!" What does that mean? Does it mean +that life was given to it, temporarily? Who shall say? Certainly it +_spoke_! + +Unseen, unnoticed, at the very moment that the High-Priest fell, slain +by the false Prophet, there had entered the Temple, Cohen, who had been +High-Priest for the _first_ year of this new Temple's history. + +He slipped away as the image uttered its speech. He met many of the +priests of other of the Courses, as they were approaching the Temple, +also numbers of the devout Jews of the city and its suburbs, and many +from other parts of the world, who had been specially drawn hither by +the news that had been flashed world-wide, as to some great event about +to happen in Jerusalem. + +"Stay!" he cried. His looks told of something serious, and in an +instant he was the centre of an eager, anxious, enquiring crowd of Jews. + +"Jehovah help us!" he went on. "For those who would be true to Him +now, must be prepared for flight or for death. Apleon, is a traitor! +'_He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him; he +hath broken his covenant._' Psalm lv. 20. '_He confirmed a covenant +with us for seven years_.' Daniel ix. 27. '_The words of his mouth +were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were +softer than oil, yet were drawn swords_.' Psalm lv. 21." + +Cohen, even while he had been speaking had led the crowding Jews away +from that main road, and now, in a _cul-de-sac_, he was continuing his +words. + +"Blind! Blind! that we were, all of us, I, especially, for my Gentile +friend, the editor of 'The Courier'--London daily paper--warned me. He +told me of the meaning of our own prophet Daniel's words, '_In the +midst of the week_ (the seven years of the covenant we made with that +apostate) _he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease_.' + +"This he has done this morning. The priests were stopped in their +preparations for the morning sacrifice. + +"'_And,_' said our father, Daniel, '_for the over-spreading of +abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation_.' +Daniel ix. 27. + +"Brethren, of the House of Israel, the Lord our God is one God. I am +no Mehushmad, but in common with many of our rabbis, I have read the +Gentile New Testament, and there, in the words of the Nazarene Prophet, +(Matt. xxiv. 15, 16.) He prophesied exactly what has come to pass this +morning in our beautiful Temple, for he said: + +"'_When ye_ (that is we of the House of Israel) _therefore, shall see +the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand +in the holy place_ (of the Temple)--_whoso readeth, let him +understand:--then let them which be in Judaea flee into the +mountains . . . and pray ye that your flight be not on the sabbath day. +For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the +beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be_.' + +"Jehovah help us, brethren! This morning has convinced me that these +times are upon us. What _this_ day will bring none but Jehovah can +tell! My last word to you, my advice to you all, is, flee this city, +flee the neighbourhood. For weeks I have had it borne in upon my soul, +that the man we have covenanted with, was working some deep, subtle, +hellish scheme. Now he hath shown his hand, there are but three +courses open to us, _idolatry_--worshipping that idol set up in our +holy place, yonder; _flight_; or _death_." + +Even as Cohen harangued his crowd of priests and Jews, Apleon rode up +the white marble road to the Temple. The Hebrew crowd was quite hidden +from any observation from that main road. It was well for them, +doubtless, that it was so. + +A moment or two after Apleon and the mighty throng which followed him +had passed, the crowd of Jews left the _cul-de-sac_, and silently, +anxiously dispersed in various directions. + +Cohen found himself walking with the man who had been Hight-priest last +year. Together they conversed in low, serious, guarded tones, until +they suddenly discovered themselves close up to a mighty throng +gathered about the now well-known witnesses, Enoch and Elijah. + +The two priests paused to listen to the witnesses' denunciations of +Apleon, whom they designated "The Beast."--"The Anti-christ." Both men +had listened often before to these prophets of God, and both had often +been well-nigh convinced of the truth of the testimony of the two +witnesses. + +"It is said," whispered Cohen, to his fellow-priest, "that these two +men are the two prophets of the Most High God, Enoch and Elijah--those +two of God's servants who never passed through death." + +"The three and a half years of their witnessing," replied the second +priest, "have been crowded with incident, miracle, and much that has +been supernatural. They say that no man has seen them eat. That, like +Elijah, when upon earth, they too have been super-naturally fed. Then, +too, nothing has been able to harm them. Apleon (the priest's voice +was lowered to the merest whisper) has directed his agents to war +against them over and over again. They have shot at them, hurled +vitrol upon them, and tried to seize them, to bind them, but as they +have themselves testified again and again, nothing can harm them _until +they have finished their testimony_." + +Cohen bent closer to his fellow-priest, as he whispered: "The book of +Revelation, in the Gentile New Testament, declares that '_they shall +prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sack-cloth. +And when they have completed their testimony, the Beast that cometh up +out of the abyss_ (I believe that is Apleon) _shall make war with them, +and overcome them, and kill them_.'" + +"Now if this come to pass, then they will die to-day, for it is a +thousand two hundred and sixty days, this very evening, since they +began their preaching, and----. But, listen, to what the one of them +is saying." + +The voice of Enoch rang out as it had done five thousand years before, +when he had prophesied, saying, "_Behold! the Lord cometh with ten +thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all; and to convince +all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they +have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly +sinners have spoken against Him--_." + +But now the message of the prophet had in it testimony as well as +warning: + +"Have we not warned you for three years and a half, that the man, +Apleon, whom you have all trusted in, was but the tool of his father, +the Devil? Have we not told you often that he worked upon your deluded +minds and imaginations for one purpose only, to keep you from 'The God +of Salvation,' and that, presently, he would set up his own image to be +worshipped in that gilded thing of unbelief, upon that mount, yonder?" + +A peal of derisive, mocking laughter greeted this statement. + +The voice of the prophet cut the laughter, with its supernatural +incisiveness, so that it rose clear and distinct above the laughter: + +"And now all that we prophesied has come to pass. The image of Apleon +(the abomination of desolation) spoken of by Daniel the prophet, has +this morning been set up in the Temple over there. '_And that Man of +Sin . . . opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, +or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the Temple of +God, showing himself that he is God_.' 2 Thess. ii. 4. + +"Upon the pedestal of his image, that was reared this morning, he has +caused to be engraved the very name of our Jehovah God--'I AM THAT I +AM!' as he supposes it to be, because it is thus translated in the +Bibles of the world. There is no sense in that way of putting it, as +there is no sense, nothing but vanity and coming failure and fall, in +that 'Man of Sin' himself. But he has chosen to ape Jehovah-God by +using '_I am, that I am!_' instead of the true translation which has +evidently been hidden from him and which is: 'I AM HE WHO AM FOR EVER!" + +"_He is Anti-christ, that denieth the Father and the Son_. 1 John ii. +22. The Scriptures have been issued by millions, every soul of you +here has had an opportunity of knowing the things whereof we again +testify. You have heard, or read, or both, (or you could have done if +you would) that he, the Man of Sin, '_would cause an image of himself +to be made, that he would give life to it, and that the image should +speak_' (Rev. xiii. 14, 15). All this has happened this morning, and +all else will happen that is prophesied. Therefore we cry: + +"_Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die? Why should ye be stricken any +more? Ye will revolt more and more. From the sole of the foot even +unto the head there is no soundness in you, but wounds and bruises and +putrefying sores: Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your +doings from before God's eyes; cease to do evil. Turn ye, turn ye, for +why will ye die?_" + +Strangely affected by the power and earnestness of this witness of God, +Cohen and his fellow-priest turned reluctantly away. In the heart of +each of them was the determination to be clear of the Jerusalem +neighbourhood that very forenoon, if possible. In fact before one +o'clock had struck, that mid-day, there had taken place a really +remarkable exodus from the city and its neighbourhood. Of these, many +were Jews, in whose composition there was deeply engraved a deep-seated +antagonism to all idolatry. + +Then, too, there were many "Kingdom believers" (by what other name can +we call them, since, having missed Salvation by the "Gospel of Grace," +they now served God, while waiting for Christ's coming to set up His +kingdom.) Many of these fled the city and its neighbourhood, for they +counted not their lives dear when it came to a case of blasphemy and +idolatry. Yet, because the love of life is inherent with the race, and +because, too, these "Kingdom believers," learned to bring others to +God, before the final judgments came, and knowing that it was written +"that as many as will not worship the image of the Beast shall be +killed," they fled Jerusalem. + + + +[1] The Author, in common with every other public speaker, and writer, +on these themes, has been so often asked the question, "What of my +loved ones who are out of Christ, how will they fare when we are gone, +and the Church is gone?" Let me say that the more I study the +Scriptures of the times of which this volume speaks, the more I am +convinced that of the many who are brought to accept Christ (in the +Gospel of His coming to reign, "the Gospel of the Kingdom,") through +the sudden translation of the Church, even though they be ill-taught, +perhaps only half-hearted, they will, under the preaching of the TWO +WITNESSES, be wholly brought into fellowship with Christ, and will, +themselves in turn, become faithful witnesses to the TRUTH. There is +nothing in Scripture to warrant the belief that the preaching of the +TWO WITNESSES will be confined to Jerusalem, and it is surely +reasonable to suppose that London, Edinburgh, New York, Chicago, +Berlin, and all other chief cities, will hear their voices in witness +and warning. They will doubtless have thousands of converts, Jew and +Gentile alike, or where will the great multitude whom John saw, come +from. But all those left behind when Christ comes, who may be won to +Him afterwards, will not only miss the glories of _the Heavenlies_ with +Christ, but will suffer persecution, and many of them death at the +hands of Anti-christ and his emissaries. (Author.) + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +DEATH OF THE "TWO WITNESSES." + +Apleon had been on the Temple mount for two hours. Part of that time +he had been in the Temple itself, in and out of which there passed +continually, streams of people, all curious to see the wonderful image +of Apleon, the image that had spoken, and that had slain "unbelievers." + +Apleon had watched the ever-moving crowds of dupes, and noticed how +every one of them bowed, or prostrated themselves before his image. He +noticed, too, whenever his own presence had been realized, that the +worshippers, while bowing _before_ the image faced him, Apleon, so that +they really gave _him_ the worship. + +In spite of all that Romanists, and others of a similar cult, may say, +the _worship_ of an image or of a statue, means the worship of the +person imaged or sculptured--this is the very essence of all +image-worship. The great Chrysostom, in one of his records of his +time, says: + +"_When the images of the Emperor are sent down and brought into a city, +its rulers and multitude go out to meet them with carefulness and +reverence, not honouring the tablet or the representation moulded in +wax, but the standing of the Emperor._" + +Athanasius wrote: + +"_He who worshippeth the image, in it worshippeth the emperor; for the +image is his form and likeness._" + +And the worship, in the Jerusalem Temple, of the _image_ of Apleon, +("The Beast") was the worship of the man himself. + +There is a very curious word in Habakkuk ii. 9, "_Woe to him that saith +to the wood, 'Awake!' to the dumb stone, "Arise, it shall teach._" +Apleon, the Anti-christ actually qualifies himself for that "woe" of +God's. + +A notice had been promulgated that in the "Broadway"--the wide, open +square from which the great marble road to the Temple opened +out,--throughout the whole day, the new "Covenant" brands would be +affixed. + +The "Covenant" sign, had for three years and a half been mostly worn +(as we have seen) in the form of a ring on the right hand, or as a +pendant frontlet upon the forehead. Some few million enthusiasts, it +is true, had worn it _branded_ on the flesh of the forehead, but this +had not been universal. + +Now it had been decreed by Apleon, and endorsed by his second, the +false Prophet, that the wearing of a _detatchable_ "Sign," be no longer +permissable, that _all must be branded--or die_. + +Brands, in several sizes, had been prepared, which, when pressed +against the forehead, and worked by a spring-lever, left the damnable +mark upon the skin in deep, rich purple characters. The surface of the +branding instrument was peculiarly soft and yielding, so that when, by +the automatic inking, the mark was made, there was never an imperfect +sign, but every character was truly formed. The ink used, claimed to +be absolutely indelible, and those who had tried it, more than two +years before, had found no break in any single line or curve if either +of the characters. + +For two hours, a hundred branders had been at work at their truly +hellish task, and if the _donning_ of the badges, three and a half +years before had been in a veritable _holiday_ spirit, the acceptance +of the brand, now, was with a blend of rapturous joy, and of actual +worship. + +With the infernal cunning which has ever characterized Satan's efforts +to thwart God and His Christ, he has counterfeited every rite, every +sacrament of Christ's Church. Hence Apleon, Satan's tool, is very keen +upon this matter of a baptismal sign. He makes a sacrament of it (i. +e. an oath or covenant of fidelity.) To show their allegiance to his +infernal lordship, Anti-christ's subjects must now wear his brand so +that it can never be erased or removed, and his chaplain ("The False +Prophet") "_causeth all, the small and the great, and the rich and the +poor, and the free and the bond, to receive_"--literal translation--"_a +stamp or brand, on their right hand, or on their forehead_." + +The preaching of the cross, of Jesus Christ as the World's Redeemer, +the putting away of sin, and the gift of eternal life by faith in God's +word of grace, the baptism into the name of Christ, had, for several +decades, been growingly scouted as "foolishness." "An obsolete +doctrine," all that was voted. "Men are far too intelligent to be +bound by such a Bible creed as that. New times need new doctrines," +etc., etc. + +The twenty years immediately preceding the manifestation of the "Man of +Sin," had been characterized by such utterances, and many others +infinitely more impious, blasphemous, and senseless. "_But after the +world by its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through +the foolishness of the thing preached, to save them that believe_ . . . +Because THE FOOLISHNESS OF GOD is WISER THAN MEN." But when +Anti-christ shall promulgate his devil-doctrines, senseless, +idolatrous, humiliating, the bulk of men of every grade and class, will +suffer themselves to be branded like cattle in a round-up. Believing +"the lie," deluded by that universal lie, they will have no choice, +save to be branded, or to die. And to yield themselves to the infernal +brand will mean to be cut off for ever from God. + +"_If any man worship the Beast and his image, and receive his mark in +his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the +wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His +indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the +presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the +smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they have no +rest day or night, who worship the Beast and his image_, AND WHOSOEVER +RECEIVETH THE MARK OF HIS NAME." (Rev. xiv. 9-11.) + +Simultaneous with the beginning of the branding, the two witnesses had +taken up a position close by the branders, and had persistently +witnessed to the near coming of the Lord in judgment upon those who +wore the Mark of the Beast, while, at the same time, they denounced +Apleon as the Anti-christ. + +Over and over again during their testimony, attempts had been made to +silence them, every conceivable death-attack had been made upon +them--but nothing harmed them. No weapon formed against them could +prosper, until their "witness" was completed. And every one who had +assisted in any form, in attacking them, had died in the act. + +Now, Apleon, attended by the ten kings, who had been summoned to +Jerusalem, rode down from the Temple. At the branding station, the ten +kings dismounted, and each received the foul mark on the forehead. + +As the last of them received the brand, a startled wondering cry burst +from some of the multitude who thronged "The Broadway," and following +the many pointing fingers of the startled ones, every one saw how that +purple, lambent flames played about Apleon's forehead in the form of +the "Covenant" sign. + +"_He doeth great wonders in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that +dwell on the earth by means of these miracles._" Rev. xiii. 12, 14. + +"_Power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations._" +Rev. xiii. 7. "_He shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt +himself, and magnify himself above every God._" + +Acclaiming him as very God, the people suddenly prostrated themselves +in worship before the great deceiver. + +Suddenly the voices of the two witnesses were heard. Both voices were +clear and distinct, yet neither clashed with the other, even though +each voice used separate terms. They stood about a hundred yards apart +from each other. + +Everyone rose to their feet, every eye was fixed upon the two grand, +fearless faces, as they thundered forth their words of warning of +judgment, of entreaty. Then suddenly they turned their gaze and their +speech upon Apleon himself. + +As the "Te Deum" sprang spontaneously from the lips of Ambrose and +Augustine, each saint voicing an alternate stanza, so now the two +witnesses hurled their fulminations against the Man of Sin: + +"_Thou heart of all foulness and deceiveableness, with the breath of +His lips shall the Christ slay thee._" Isa. xi. 4. + +"_Thou marked one, the Lord shall consume thee with the spirit of His +mouth, and shall destroy thee with the brightness of His coming._" 2 +Thess. ii. 8. + +"_O thou enemy! Thy destructions shall soon come to a perpetual end._" +Ps. lx. 6. + +"_It shall come to pass in that day_ (when Jehovah shall deliver His +people out of thy hands) _saith the Lord of Hosts, that I will break +thy yoke_ (Apleon Emperor, Man of Sin, Anti-christ) _from off the +'peoples' neck._" Jer. xxx 8. + +"_Judgment shall sit, and Christ shall take away thy kingdom, to +consume and to destroy it unto the end._" Dan. vii. 26. + +"_Tophet is ordained of old, yea for thee, thou Man of Sin, it is +prepared: God hath made it deep, and large; the pile thereof is fire +and much wood: the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth +kindle it._" Isa. xxx. 33. + +"_And thou shall be taken, and with thee The False Prophet, thy +co-adjutor, he whom thou hast deputed to work miracles before thee, and +in thy foul name, and with all those whom thou and thy False Prophet +have deceived, who have received thy brand on them, and who have +worshipped thine image.--These all, you, your prophet, and your dupes, +shall be cast into a lake of fire burning with brimstone_". Rev. xiii. +2, 3. Rev. xix. 20. + +Low and mocking, a laugh broke from Apleon, upon whose brow there still +played that lambent flame. The laugh was caught up by the multitude, +until one far-reaching volume of mocking, derisive laughter went +rolling out-and-away from The Broadway, to Gareth and Goab, and every +other suburb of the city, and back again. + +As the last echo of the laughter died away, Apleon called, to his +Viceroy: + +"Where is the axe and the block?" + +"Here, Sire!" + +A score of men bearing broad, gleaming axes, with thrice a score of +others, bearing, each three, a blood-red enamelled block, came forward +into the centre of the square. + +"Take those two drivelling prophets, and behead them!" cried Apleon. + +A thousand hands were stretched towards the witnesses. This time they +were readily taken. Their bodies were dragged to the blocks, and with +one stroke to each, they were beheaded. + +With a shout of triumph, that spread far and wide, the people acclaimed +Apleon as "God Almighty." + +"Let no man touch that carrion, to bury it!" + +Was the order of Apleon. + +That was to be doubly his hour of triumph. All arrangements had been +made for his official coronation. An immense awning of purple and gold +silk, was stretched over the whole of "The Broadway." + +The time occupied in stretching the whole thing was not more than sixty +seconds. A throne of Ivory, Pearl, and gold was set in the centre of +the pavement, beneath the awning. Everything was done with the +rapidity of a stage-setting in a theatre--_it was all very theatrical_! + +A score of trumpeters executed a wonderful fanfare, then, amid more +pomp than the world had ever yet seen, a crown, of fabulous value and +of extraordinary magnificence, was set upon the head of Apleon, who +occupied the throne, each of the ten kings actually touching, and +helping to set the crown upon his head. + +Hitherto, Apleon, though upheld by the ten kings and governments, had, +after all, been an un-crowned Dictator. Now, in the hour of his +seeming triumph over "The Two Witnesses," he was crowned Roman Emperor +of the ten-kingdomed confederacy. + +When the coronation ceremony was finally completed, and Apleon, mounted +on his black horse, and surrounded by the ten kings, started to ride +back to the Palace, he ordered messages to be flashed to all the cities +of the world, announcing three days of rejoicing over the slaying of +the Witnesses, and also the announcement of his own coronation. + +The rejoicings in Jerusalem, Babylon, and elsewhere, over the death of +"The Witnesses" was wilder than the "Mafficking" [Transcriber's note: +Mafeking?] in England of the Boer war days. The two Witnesses had been +a source of torment and fear upon all peoples (save those who clove to +God) and now that their headless bodies lay stark and dead on the +marble pave of "The Broadway," the people "_rejoiced upon them, made +merry, and sent gifts one to another_." Rev. xi. 10. + +The outrage upon decency, sanitation, and even common humanity, in +suffering the two bodies to remain unburied, lasted three days and a +half. Three days and a half was long enough period for the +representatives of every nation, gathered in the city and +neighbourhood, to be perfectly assured that they were dead. "_And +certain ones from among the peoples and the tribes and tongues and +nations behold their corpses three days and a half, and suffer not +their corpses to be put in sepulchre_." Rev. xi. 9. + +When Edward the 7th of Britain, lay dead in the great Abbey of the +Empire, it was counted high honour to be part of the _silent_ guard +over the coffin. + +And men almost fought for the privilege to stand guard over the +headless forms of the Two Witnesses lying on that marble pave in +Jerusalem: "_It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem_." +Luke xiii. 33. + +But _these_ death-guards were not silent. They laugh scornfully, +derisively, and crack jokes upon the now silenced testimony of the Two +Witnesses. Caricatures, and comic cuts upon their lives, their death, +their oft-repeated warnings, were printed and sold in the streets of +the city. + +It was the evening of the fourth day after the setting up of the image +in the Temple, and three and a half days since the Witnesses were +slain. A last, a final public function before the dispersal of the +kings, and others specially gathered for the coronation, and other +ceremonies, had been arranged for 6 o'clock in "The Broadway." + +Apleon, and the other kings had gathered. The trumpeters had blown one +blast upon their silver instruments, when a cry of horror burst from +the gathered multitudes. For the bodies of the Two Witnesses suddenly +stood upon their feet. + +They were facing Apleon, as they stood up. Their eyes met his +startled, fearsome gaze. His face was deathly pale. A tomb-like hush +of awe and fear was upon the gathered peoples. + +Suddenly, overhead, _three_ deep notes, like thunder rolled through +space. The multitude thought it was thunder, the resurrected Witnesses +knew it for the voice of their Lord, crying "_Come up hither!_" + +And instantly their bodies rose in the sight of all the people. No +awning was spread over the square, this evening, and every eye beheld +the ascent of the resurrected saints, a wondrous cloud seeming to +upbear them upon its billowy whiteness. + +An overwhelming fear fell upon everyone. The arranged kingly function +was suspended. Yet still the people remained. It was as though they +were spell-bound. + +And while everyone waited, wondering and fearing, a low, deep rumbling +was heard beneath their feet. Then the earth trembled, and rocked. + +For one long, shuddering instant every voice was hushed, horror got +hold of the people. Then in a moment yells and shrieks of terror +escaped men and women alike. From the roofs of the houses there came +piteous cries for help, for, with the trembling of the earth, the +houses rocked like children's houses of cards. + +It grew dark, and bewildered by the sudden awfulness of the whole +situation, and maddened by the hopelessness born of the sense of +insecurity of even the foot of ground upon which each stood, the mob +rushed blindly hither and thither. Panic, in its most hideous form got +hold of them. In their blind, unseeing rushes they collided with each +other, and a score of fierce passions leaped to life within them, chief +of which was a lust for war. Madly, savagely, senselessly, neither +knowing or caring with whom they fought, they stabbed and shot, and +clawed and scratched, and boxed and wrestled with each other. + +The many horses stampeded, and beat down hundreds of the people beneath +their iron hoofs. + +The darkness deepened, it grew sooty, inky. The horrors pressed upon +the people, women and children, and even men grovelled on their faces +in the dust, clutching and clawing at the ground. + +Thunder in the heavens, and thunder under the earth deafened and +terrified every soul. Fierce, wide, jagged ribbons of awful flame came +out of the blackened heavens. Scores of thunderbolts, red and flaming, +leaped out of the blackness of cloud above, and, hissing as they came, +wrought awful death among the mobs upon which they descended. The +smell of burning flesh filled the air, making a new horror. + +The thunder and rumble beneath the earth increased. The whole surface +of the city heaved like the swell of a storm-tossed sea. Chasms, +fissures, gulfs yawned every-where, and thousands of people toppled +into the opened earth. Suddenly, the whole heavens were filled with an +appalling succession of frightful crashings; it was as though hundreds +of millions of powerful rockets were exploding in successive volleys of +millions each. Beneath the earth, thunders and crashings went on at +the same time. Then, in every direction, the earth fissured and gaped +and yawned wider than ever, and with blood-curdling roarings and +crashings, a whole tenth part of the city tottered and fell into the +yawning gulfs, with thousands upon thousands of people. + +Slowly, the rumble of falling buildings, and the hideous thunders below +and aloft died away, and a strange, awesome hush fell upon the city. +Slowly, too, the darkness melted, leaving the sky blood-red. The blood +gradually merged into pink towards the centre of the dome, the pink +became gold, then every living eye in the city and suburbs became +centred upon that golden centre, and all saw the forms of the TWO +WITNESSES, with a pavement of dazzling white cumulus beneath their +sandalled feet. + +The wondrous scene was as the very voice of God to the watching +multitudes, if they could but have understood, the voice testifying to +the power and truth of God and His word. + +It was the _new_, the fashionable part of the city that had suffered in +the earthquake and its attendant horrors--the part of the city where +"Satan's seat was," chiefly. + +With the engulphing of the most fashionable part of the city, there was +a consequent heavy toll of human life. Seven thousand men of name, of +notable rank, perished in the earthquake. + +When the last building had tottered into the yawning chasms of the +riven earth, and the souls of the late deriders of God had toppled into +their hell; when the clouds of dust had cleared away; when no further +earth-rumble came, then with a gasp of terror the remainder of the +gathered thousands of people "_Gave glory to God_." + +There was no worship; no sorrow for their sin; no repentance; not even +any remorse; certainly no conversions of the whole mass, any more than +were of Jaunes and Jambres, when they declared, of the Miracles of +Moses and Aaron, "_This is the finger of God_." + +Some there were, who had been near to yielding to the pleadings of the +Two Witnesses, who were wholly won to God in this hour, but the vast +mass of the people continued to worship the Beast. Their cry to God +had been but a terror-stricken cry. + +By the morning the gathered masses had wholly recovered themselves, and +the suspended public function was carried out. One part of this +function was the partition of Palestine among certain rulers, +millionaires, and others. "_He_ (Anti-christ) _shall divide the land +for gain_." Dan. xi. 39. + +With the horror and fear of the survivors of this earthquake, the +"_Second Woe" was finished, "and behold the third woe cometh quickly_." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +FLIGHT! PURSUIT! + +Throughout the latter half of the "Day of Blasphemy," when the +"Abomination of Desolation," had been set up in the Temple of +Jerusalem, the exodus of fearsome, fleeing people went on. With nearly +three million visitors, from every land, the more or less rapid +departure of a hundred thousand or more, was not noticed. In fact, +more than that number of persons might be expected to leave every +twenty-four hours--the ordinary exit of visitors after the special +visit. + +But, presently, it was reported to Apleon, that a mighty exodus of Jews +and Gentiles, few of whom wore the "Brand of the Covenant," had taken +place, and was still taking place. He had spies everywhere. + +The whole of Jewish population, with those on visit to the city for +this special occasion, were either _for_ the Anti-christ or _against_ +him, those against him were but a very small minority. + +The deluded, idolatrous Jews will hate and betray their nearest and +dearest relations and friends, as Micah prophesied that they would: +"_Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide; keep the +doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom_." Micah vii. 5. +_And endorsing this, Jesus said: "They shall deliver you up to be +afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all, for my +name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one +another, and, shall hate one another_." Matt. xxiv. + +With father, mother, brother, lover, sister, friend all acting as +betrayers of their own kith and kin, Apleon soon learned much that he +needed to know as to the fugitives. He discovered that the many +thousand fleeing Jews had, first, at least, travelled southwards, and +he instructed his emissaries to ascertain the objective point of these +fleeing Jews. He left the whole thing in the hands of his chaplain, +"The False Prophet," who had the essence of all the subtlety of Hell in +his composition, with all the devilish ingeniousness of cruelty of +every Inquisitor who had ever practised in past days. A "lamb" in +seeming, he was a "dragon in actual nature." Rev. xiii. 11. + +Spies had informed him that Cohen, the first high-priest, was +undoubtedly the leader of the fugitives, but that his wife and daughter +had refused to accompany him. "They are wholly with our World-Lord, +Apleon," one of the spies had said. + +"Will Cohen, think you," asked the chaplain, "steal back under cover of +one of the dark nights and try to induce his wife to join him?" + +"No," laughed the spy. "He will think himself well rid of her. She +has been the plague of his life. Every drop of her blood is as sharp +as the juice of a lime. Her lips distil wormwood. And vinegar is a +cloying sweetness compared to her kindest thought or utterance, and----" + +"But the daughter," interrupted the chaplain, sharply, "What of her? +Is she a replica of her mother?" + +"Not a bit, not a bit of it!" And the eyes of the betrayer flashed +with a new light. "Miriam is as beautiful as a houri, as fair as the +light of a sun-lit day after a black night of tempest, and as sweet in +disposition as Rachel, the favoured of our father Jacob." + +"If she is all this, why is she unwed? or perhaps she loves, and +perhaps we could make her a tool of her lover, and thus find out where +her father has led those dogs of fugitives." + +There was a look of hate and malice in the eyes of the betrayer, as he +answered: "Yes, she loves, loves as her very life, but the man she +loves is an even greater zealot than her father, and he has gone with +Cohen--curse him! may he never more be seen by Miriam!" + +The chaplain laughed maliciously: "Oh! the wind blows in that quarter, +eh? You love the fair Miriam, but another has cut you out!" + +The betrayer was inclined to be surly, but the chaplain knew how to +speak like the "_lamb_," and quickly mollified the young Hebrew. Then, +together, they plotted and conferred, their plotting based on the +supposition that young Isaac Wolferstein, the fugitive lover of Miriam +would return, secretly, to induce Miriam to share the loyal-to-Jehovah +flight of himself and her father. + + * * * * * * + +The vineyard of Cohen was an eighth of a mile from his villa, and the +villa was a mile and a half from the Jaffa Gate of the city. Miriam +had wandered out as far as the vineyard, for her heart was too sore to +sleep that night. She made her way to the arbour, where so often Isaac +and she had held sweet and tender intercourse. During the last twelve +hours, she had turned unto God and unto the Messiah who was so soon to +come to deliver His people and to set up His kingdom. + +She had gazed upon the resurrected Two Witnesses, as they had appeared, +glorified, in the Heavens, after that awful earthquake. And, recalling +the words of their preaching, and all that her lover and father had +urged upon her before they reluctantly left her, to flee the city, she +had been suddenly bowed before God, in penitence and prayer. + +"If only Isaac would come back for me," she moaned, as she dropped +wearily upon the seat of the arbour. + +"He has come back, Mirry, darling!" + +At the first sound of the voice that spoke, she leaped to her feet, +crying: "Isaac! Isaac! Forgive me, dear, that I----" + +She got no further, his arms enclosed her fair form, his hot lips gave +and received love's pure caress, and when at last he spoke again, it +was to say: "God has given us again each other, darling, and nothing +but death must ever part us again." + +The hours passed and to them they seemed but as minutes. He had much +to tell of the flight of the Believers, as he termed them, and had many +words of message from her father. + +The morning comes early in Palestine. At the first blush of dawn they +stole out of the vineyard, to where his motor waited. They had eyes +only for each other, as, hand in hand, they moved through the morning +twilight. Then, with a bewildering suddenness, from the off-side of +the motor, a dozen crouching men sprang out. + +Five minutes later, amid the mocking, jeering laughter of their +captors, they were being taken to the city--only not together. Miriam +was forced to ride _in_ the car seated by the side of their betrayer, +the man whom she hated, and whose love-overtures she had scorned and +repulsed. Her wrists and her ankles were bound with cords, and she had +been lifted into the car, bodily, by the man of her hate. To humble +her and to shame her, the cur had kissed her again and again before her +captive lover, then with a carefully judged malice, he had seated her, +by his side, on the seat that _faced_ the rear of the car, so that her +captive-lover would be further tormented by the sight of her, compelled +to accept his, his rival's, caresses. + +Isaac Wolferstein was cruelly bound, fastened to the rear of the car, +and made to stumble over the road, and often to be dragged, when the +pace of the car carried him off his feet. Once or twice he almost +fainted, for the soles of his feet were skinned--his captors had +purposely divested him of his shoes and socks. The ants found out the +bare, bleeding feet and added torment to his pain. + +The city was astir as the car entered. The news was shouted from the +car, that one of the accursed, who defied "The Lord, Apleon," had been +captured, and was to be tortured in the Broadway. + + * * * * * * + +The great open space was crowded with people. As, of old, the Roman +populace gathered in holiday, theatre mood to see the Christians +tortured and slain, so had this great concourse gathered about the +beautiful Miriam, and her handsome lover Isaac Wolferstein. + +One of the Kiosks, from which "Covenant" brands were worked, was +opened, and the spring instrument was brought out. Apleon's chaplain +was there, and in a voice heard clearly by everyone at the farthest +remove from him, he asked: + +"Isaac Wolferstein, will you worship "The Lord Apleon?" + +Wolferstein was hoarse with pain and thirst, but lifting his head +proudly, he looked the "_False Prophet_" full in the eyes, as he cried +fearlessly: + +"Never! Apleon, is a demon, and of his father Beelzebub!" + +"Silence, you beast!" yelled his tormenter, and he struck him across +the lips with the stick he carried. Then he turned towards the +beautiful Jewess, saying: + +"Miriam Cohen. Will you worship our Lord Apleon, and wear his brand?" + +"Never!" she cried. + +He spat at her, as he said, "Well, we shall see!" + +He turned to Wolferstein again, saying: "Where has Cohen, the +ex-priest, and that herd of disloyal pigs gone?" + +"I will not tell you!" replied the captive, proudly. + +"You defy me, so be it. Aha, aha!" The "_False Prophet_" laughed +mockingly. Turning to some of the Apleon guards who were massed on two +sides of the Broadway, he said: + +"Strip him! and lash him----." He lifted his eyes to the sun, +calculated how it would travel, then, with a fiendish smile, he +indicated one of the pillars of the colonnade, "lash him there were the +sun will reach him." + +They tore the clothes from the fine form of the loyal young Jew. Then, +when he was absolutely nude, they fastened him to the pillar. + +A honey-seller stood in the crowd. An officer of the guards spied the +man, and called him out. "Take a handful of that fellow's honey," he +ordered one of his men, "and lightly smear that foul Jew's back and +shoulders, his face and ears too. Don't put it on thickly, but as +light as you can, that the insects may find his flesh _through_ the +honey." + +The officer's bidding was done. Then began as hideous a martyrdom for +Isaac Wolferstein, as had ever come to a soul loyal to God. The flies, +ants, and a score of other stinging things found him out. His +honey-smeared flesh was black with them. + +In his agony and torture he turned his eyes upon Miriam. "My darling!" +he cried, as well as his dried leather tongue and throat would let him. +"God will pardon you, surely, if you bend to circumstances, and wear +the foul sign!" + +"But I should never forgive myself, Isaac," she called. "And how could +I meet Jehovah's searching eye, if I failed Him now. Courage, courage +dear one!" + +She knew, as we know, that Wolferstein meant no disloyalty to his God, +but that he was momentarily beside himself with the agony of his +torture and his love for her. + +With a very suave, mocking smile, "_The False Prophet_" spoke across +the six yards that separated him from Miriam, saying: + +"Tell us where your father and that foul herd that went with him, are +located." + +"I will not, not even if you torture me to death," she cried. + +"Wait until your torture begins, before you brag!" this to Miriam. +Then turning to some of the soldiers, he cried: "Strip her, don't leave +a rag upon her, and treat her from top to toe with that smearing of +honey!" + +Wolferstein shut his teeth sharply with the agony that swept over him +at this order. In that moment he was unmindful of his own torture, in +his dread contemplation of his loved one's shaming and torment. He +shut his eyes that he might not see all that followed. + +The brutal soldiery took a fiendish delight in fulfilling the order +given them. They literally rent the clothes off the beautiful girl in +strips and ribbons. Then when she stood absolutely nude before them, +they smeared the beautiful form with the honey. + +"Lash her to that pillar," cried Apleon's hellish deputy. He indicated +a pillar, adding: "While they will both get the full benefit of the +sun, they can see each other--lovers are never really happy out of +sight of each other!" + +There was a roar of laughter at this thrust. + +We cannot--there is no need to detail all their sufferings. In less +than two hours both were crazed with the blistering sun, and the +ravening of the foul and biting insects. + +Once, just before the crazing robbed him of coherent thought, the mind +of Wolferstein travelled to the Psalm he knew so well from his +childhood's days, and his black backed lips feebly murmured: + +"Be not far from me, O God, for there is none to help me. Many bulls +of Bashan have compassed me. I am poured out like water, my heart is +like wax, it is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a +potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; I am brought into the dust +of death; for dogs have compassed me; the assembly of the wicked have +enclosed me. Be not Thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste +Thou to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the +power of the dog." + +The lovers were alike, both past speech a moment later, and it looked +as though they would soon be past consciousness. Not a single eye, +apparently, in all that vast crowd, had cast a glance of pity upon +them, no voice had been raised in sympathetic pleading for them. +Devilism was the heart of all things, and it changed men and women into +veritable demons. Their persecutors had been as fiends in their +torturing, and the onlookers enjoyed the scene as of some fine sport. + +And now it looked as though both were dying. Both were losing +consciousness. The half-closed eyes were blood-shot; the lips were +baked black, and hideously swollen; their mouths were open; and where +the suffused blood--from the fierce knottings of the cords that bound +them--showed blue and purple, the veins were swollen to the bursting +point. + +"The block and the axe!" commanded "_The False Prophet._" The grim +things were brought. + +"Loose the carrion!" came the next command. + +A dozen hands were busy in a moment with the knotted cords. Miriam was +the first to be fully released. Her eyes were closed; her breaths were +heavy, slow throbs; her beautiful form bent and swayed; and the soldier +who held her had to bear all her weight. He carried her to the block; +then, waiting, glanced for instructions to where the officer of the +guards, and "_The False Prophet_" stood. + +An executioner, toying with his axe, stood by the side of the block. + +"Off with it!" called "_The False Prophet_," laughingly. + +The soldier lifted the nude, insensible form of the beautiful girl so +that her neck rested in the hollow of the block. He held her in +position. The axe fell. The head rolled to the stone pave. A woman +close by, caught the head by the hair, twisted her fingers well into +the beautiful black swathes, and swinging the gory thing around her +head, let it fly from her hand, shouting, as it hurled through the air. + +"A kick-off, for the _first_ team!" + +The mob, among whom the head fell, began to play football with it. A +moment later, the head of Isaac Wolferstein rolled to the pavement, and +a second woman caught that and hurled it over the heads of the people +in the opposite direction to that in which Miriam's head had gone. + +"A kick-off," shouted the hurler of the head, "for the _second_ team." +[1] + + * * * * * * + +This effort to trace Cohen and the fugitives had failed, but the +knowledge soon came in, in four or five different ways. One of the +wireless messages had brought a clue. Some traders brought in a fuller +clue, and rapidly other news came to hand. + +It soon became perfectly clear that there existed some kind of evident +understanding between the various fleeing crowds, and that their first +place of united meeting was to be one of the agricultural colonies near +to the old Kadesh-Barnea. + +By this time the fugitives had had four good days start. Apleon +ordered an enormous body of troops to go in pursuit, and to slay or +capture the fugitives--capture, by preference, that they might be +publicly tortured and beheaded. + +Mad with the lust for blood, and that fouler lust of Religious revenge, +the pursuing host sped southwards. The wondrous new motor-trains, that +would career over hillocks easier than a thoroughbred hunter gallops +over a turfy down, carried the expedition. There were a hundred trains +of thirty cars each, besides a thousand or more single Motor-Cars, +carrying from twelve to twenty persons. Worked on the then latest +principle,--ether-driven--the cars and trains swept onward at the rate +of a hundred miles an hour. Over head, travelling at the same rate, +was a fleet of aerial war-ships, armed with infernal torpedoes, that if +dropped into any town or community, would wipe out every living soul, +and destroy the stoutest city, in a few minutes. + +It looked as though the devoted band of Jews and Gentiles who had fled +south were doomed. + +Wild, exultant shouts of ironical laughter and unholy glee burst from +the land and aerial pursuers, as they came within a moment or two (at +their rate of travelling) of the fugitives. + +The latter had seen them, heard them, and, as a body, were bowed in +prayer for----. They scarcely knew what to ask, for deliverance or for +fortitude, so that the essence of their prayer was "_undertake for us, +Lord!_" + +The sky lowered over their heads. They thought it was the aerial fleet +hiding the sun--but the winged warriors were not _quite_ come up over +their place of gathering. + +The prostrate refugees remained, to a man, upon their faces. Souls in +direct dealing with God have no curiosity as to outside events. + +Suddenly, like the hiss of ten thousand times ten thousand snakes, a +rushing sibilation passed through the momentarily darkened air. At the +same instant the earth trembled, and there was an awful, thunderous +rumbling in the nether world. + +Simultaneous with both of these phenomena there came yells and screams, +then,--anon--silence. + +The mass of refugees raised themselves, and stood silent with awe and +thankfulness. Sheets of flame had rushed out of the heavens, +overwhelmed the aerial fleet of vengeful pursuers, fired the vessels, +and hurled men and machines downwards into a mighty gulf. For the +trembling, and thundering of the earth had been the result and +accompaniments of a terrible earth-quake, that now swallowed up the +whole pursuing host--land and aerial, alike. + +For a moment or two no sound came from the mighty crowd of +miraculously-delivered refugees. Then, suddenly, one of the late +priests of the Temple, a chorister-priest, burst into song: + +"_Sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously. The Lord is my +strength and my song, and He is become my salvation: He is my +God . . . . My father's God, and I will exalt Him. The Lord is a Man +of war: the Lord is His name. Our enemy's chariots and his host hath +He cast into the earth . . . . Thy right hand, O Lord, is become +glorious in power: Thy right hand, O Lord, dashed in pieces the enemy. +And in the greatness of Thine excellency Thou hast overthrown them that +rose up against Thee; Thou sentest forth Thy wrath, which consumed +them._" + +Almost in the instant of the starting of the song, thousands of Jews, +(and Gentiles, as well) had recognized the Red Sea Triumph Song, and +had joined the voice of the leader. What a swell of triumph it was! +On, on they sang: + +"_The enemy said: I will pursue, I will overtake; my lust shall be +satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, and my hand shall destroy +them. Thou didst blow with Thy wind, and they were destroyed._ + +"_Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the Gods! Who is like Thee, +glorious in Holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Thou +stretchedst out Thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. Thou in Thy +mercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed: Thou hast +guided them in Thy strength. The people shall hear, and be afraid: +sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestine. Fear and dread +shall fall upon them: by the greatness of Thine arm they shall be as +still as a stone; till Thy people, O Lord, till the people pass over, +whom Thou hast purchased._ + +"_Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine +inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made, in the +Sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established. The Lord shall +reign for ever and ever._" + +Three times over, led by the impromptu priest-precentor, that grateful, +jubilant, delivered people sang the last sentence. + +Then, as their song of praise finished, the leaders took counsel +together as to what they should do next. It was the unanimous feeling, +and expressed opinion, that Apleon would send forth other expeditions +to destroy them, if he learned that they had escaped the fate of his +aerial and land pursuit. + +"I do not believe," cried Cohen, the chief spokesman among the Jews, +"that God Jehovah has permitted one of our pursuers to escape. God's +judgments, like His mercies, are full and complete. Will Apleon, the +Traitor to his covenant-word, ever know the fate of our pursuers? I +believe not, unless anyone of us here retrace his steps to Jerusalem to +tell him, and that would mean public torture and death to the +tale-bearer." + +He paused, and glanced around on the throng nearest to him, as he asked: + +"Does anyone present know anything in the Scriptures relating to this +present position, that will serve as a guide to our movements now?" + +A tall, fine-looking man responded by lifting his right arm. He was +asked to speak. He came forward and stood upon the hillock where Cohen +stood. Holding aloft a Bible, he cried: + +"Men and Brethren, of the stock of Israel, and Gentiles associated with +them. I was a Christian minister, so-called, in Australia, when the +'Rapture' took place. I was _left behind_, because, though I could +preach eloquently enough, and could keep my church filled to +over-flowing. I was not a converted man; I had been trained for the +church, as my only brother had been trained for the bar. I never +realized the need of conversion, my soul was filled with pride in my +gifts, hence I was left behind when Christ came for His own,--and, +among His own, thank God, were many 'Israelites indeed,' as well as +Gentiles. + +"Since my conversion, friends, (and though too late for the Rapture, +yet still the glorious event took place within forty-eight hours of the +Rapture) I have _studied_ my Bible, to see what should happen. +Everything _has_ happened according as the New Testament has laid it +down: The 'people of God,' the Jews, have built their Temple. They +made their seven-year covenant with Apleon. The Anti-christ, the +Scripture calls him. At the end of the three and a half years (_half_ +of the covenant time) he orders the Sacrifice to cease in the Temple at +Jerusalem--and everybody here knows how _literally_ all this has +happened. + +"He has set up his own image to be worshipped, as was foretold, and +God's ancient people, with those of us here who are Gentiles, have +fled. We are here, to-day, here at this moment, living out exactly +what the New Testament had all along prophesied would come to pass. In +that wonderful book, which deals with these times in which we are now +living,--Revelation twelve, it says, that the faithful Jews, and +others, '_were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly +into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, +and times, and half a time_, (three and a half years from now,) +friends, which period will complete the seven years of Apleon's +(Anti-christ's) reign. + +"Now listen again to that same prophesy, friends: '_And the Serpent_ +(Apleon) _cast out of his mouth water as a flood, after_ (the +fugitives, us who are here today) _that he might cause them to be +carried away of the flood. And the earth helped_ (the fugitives) _and +the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon +cast out of his mouth._' Has not every item of this been actually +fulfilled, has not God opened the earth and swallowed up the flood, and +delivered us? Then that wonderful prophecy goes on: + +"_And_ (the fugitives) _fled into the wilderness, where they had a +place prepared of God, and where they should be fed for twelve hundred +and sixty days_, (three and a half years.) + +"I do not pose as a prophet, friends, but I cannot help thinking from +all I read, some of which I have quoted to you, that God's mind for us +is that we should make our way into the wilderness beyond here, where +God's people of old time went, after God had swallowed up Pharoah's +hosts, even as He has just swallowed up Apleon's hosts. For, did you +notice, in the word I quoted to you just now, it not only said '_the_ +wilderness,' but '_her place_.' It was the wilderness yonder there----" + +He pointed Southwards with his finger. "In Sinai; where Moses fled +from the wrath of Pharoah; where Israel fled when pursued by the +Egyptians; where Elijah fled from bloody Jezebel, and where, again and +again, God's people have found shelter, so that God calls it '_her_ +place.' It comes to me, as I speak thus, that since Apleon's attempt +to destroy us has failed, (whether he will learn that, or not, he will +know that his punitive expedition does not return to him) his rage will +be fixed against all, in every part of the world, who will not Worship +him, and his image. So that the persecuted ones, in each land, against +whom his rage shall blaze, will probably flee to some wilderness in +their own land, while thousands of those who cannot flee will meet +martyrdom. + +"But wheresoever the wilderness shall be, whether down there in Sinai, +or in that vast desert in my wonderful land of Australia, or in one or +other of America's deserts, or the desert of whatever land it may be. +God will, I believe, miraculously feed, as He miraculously fed the +fugitive millions of Israel with manna, and fed Elijah with food from +Heaven by ravens. He could send 'manna' again, or any other food he +pleased. Or he could as readily feed if he pleased, with one meal to +last the three and a half years, as he could make his servants of old +'go in the strength of one meal for forty days.'" + +There was a little more in this strain, then there followed a kind of +general conference upon the matter in hand. The whole thing was too +serious to be delayed, or trifled with, and, eventually, it was agreed +to travel as swiftly as might be to the "Wilderness of Sinai," where +waiting upon God, they would hope to be directed in any future +movement, or be sustained by his wonder-working hand. + + + +[1] May God arouse readers of this scene to reflect that there must be +thousands living to-day, who will suffer thus hideously. Some, too, +who to-day are members of churches, others, children of Christian +Parents, many too, of the "Almost persuaded" among us. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +MARTYRED. + +It was three months since the image of Apleon had been set up in the +"Holy" place in Jerusalem. Now all the world worshipped "The Beast," +for the images had been multiplied until every town and city and almost +every church, etc., had its own idol. + +The world had begun by "_Wondering after_" the Beast, it gave itself up +to error, despised the Truth, opened itself to receive the "_Strong +delusion_," the _Anti_-christ lie, so that the _worship_ of the Beast +himself, then of his image, became but just consequent steps one after +the other. + +In Ancient Roman days its Emperors took divine titles, accepted homage, +worship, honor, all of which belonged, by right, to Deity alone. +Augustus had temples reared for the worship of himself, and, through +all the ages since, the remains of one of these temples (at Angora) has +remained, and inscribed upon a great stone lintel is the significant +word: "To THE GOD AUGUSTUS." Near by, in the same district, is a +kindred inscription, "To MARCUS AURELIUS . . . . _by one most devoted +to his Godhead_." Nero and Domitian, fiends of blood and lust, were +styled, while they lived, "GOD," and "OUR GOD AND LORD." + +And Apleon fulfilled, to the minutest letter, all that was prophesied +of him as regarded his assumption of the divine. "_He will exalt +himself_," wrote Daniel "_and magnify himself above God. He will speak +marvellous things against the God of gods. He will not regard any God, +for he will magnify himself above all." "He opposeth and exalteth +himself above all that is called God," Paul said, "or that is +worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing +himself that he is God_." + +Whatever may be the cause of it, the fact remains that ever since the +Devil's lie in Eden was absorbed by, and ruined man, there has been a +proneness, a latent tendency to idolatry in the human race. And the +_manifestations_ of this tendency have not been confined to peoples who +in their recent past have been won from idol worship. + +As late as the revolution days, in cultured, polished France, busts of +Marat and others, were greeted in the streets with bursts of +Hallelujahs, by the populace, and, even in the churches, all over +France, the people sang odes and Hallelujahs, and bowed themselves +before these busts, and at the mention of their names. Marat, +especially was treated as divine and "was universally deified," and +"divine" worship of his image was everywhere set up in churches. + +And the "worship of the Beast" came about easily, and as the natural +transition from the world's earlier adulation of the "Man of Sin." + +Millions upon millions of his image, in the form of charms, were worn +like the _eikons_ of the Greek church. In the hour of death these +_eikons_ (likenesses) "of the Beast," were held before the eyes of the +passing soul, as the crucifix was held, (in the old days before the +destruction of the older ecclesiastical systems,) before the eyes of +the dying Romanist and Ritualist. + +In that first three months of the _second_ half of the seven years of +Anti-christ, much had changed in every way in the world. Under the +supreme dictation of Apleon changes commanded by him were effected +throughout the whole world, in one week, that would have occupied a +century in the old days of the nineteenth century, say. + +Babylon the Great, which had long since been rebuilt, had become the +world's commercial centre. It was exclusively a _commercial_ city, +there was nothing ecclesiastical (Babylon _ecclesiastical_, the +religious system had been destroyed, when all _religious_ head-ship had +been summed up in Apleon). + +There was nothing military, in the New Babylon, and though every +vileness in the form of entertainment was to be found in the great +city, all this was but the recreative side of the life of the +commercial people of the world's metropolis. + +Ever increasingly, during the 19th century, and the first decade of the +20th, commerce had been growing as clamorous and as exciting as the +"horse-leech," never satisfied, ever crying "give, give." It had +clamoured for a common currency, common weights and measures, common +code of terms, and a hundred and one kindred things. + +But it was in Babylon the Great, that the woman of Zechariah v. +1--Commerce--had found all she had been insisting for, through all the +past years,--and it all emanated from, and was centred in Apleon. And +it was all connected with worship. "_Covetousness, which is idolatry_." + +With the utter destruction of "Mystic Babylon," the vast religious +system, (whose destruction we have seen,) there came a mighty impulse +of commerce, and of consequent wealth to "Babylon the Great" the City. + +Apleon had made it his head-quarters. "_The kings of the earth lived +wantonly with her_." Her wharves and warehouses--built on that +wondrous Euphrates--were packed with "_merchandise of gold, silver, +precious stones, of pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, and all +rare woods, and all manner of vessels of ivory, brass, iron, marble, +cinnamon, odours, ointments, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, +wheat, beasts, sheep, horses, chariots, slaves--and souls of men_." + +Her vessels traded with the whole world. Her liners, travelling at 100 +miles per hour, were in easy touch of every land. Her pride in her +Maritime and commercial power, was overwhelming: "How much she hath +glorified herself, and lived deliciously. . . . For she saith in her +heart, I sit a queen!" Her aerial merchandise fleets, too, were +amazing! + + * * * * * * + +The three months had brought great changes to the trio in whom we are +specially interested--Ralph Bastin, George Bullen, and Rose, his young +wife. + +Ralph, in quitting the editor's chair of the Courier, had received a +handsome _doucier_, from Sir Archibald Carlyon, and this, at his +special request, had been paid to him in the new paper currency of the +time--there was a world-common currency, under the Apleon regime, as +there was also a world-common code, weights and measures, etc. + +He had also contrived to turn his savings into the paper currency. +George Bullen had done the same, though in the case of each of them it +had not been easy work, for both were marked men. + +They knew themselves to be hated--and watched. Again and again they +had narrowly escaped death, and each day they realized that it might be +the last. + +The news of the wondrous enthusiasm of the world's peoples gathered in +Babylon and Jerusalem, in their new worship of the golden images of +Apleon, had stirred London, New York, Berlin, Paris--_atheistical_ +Paris; and all other great world-centres, and in each city many images +had been set up. + +Though neither Ralph Bastin, or George Bullen had now anything to do +with journalism--they could not obtain work of any kind because of the +absence of the "mark of the Beast" upon their foreheads. But both were +journalists by nature, hence when they knew that the image of the Beast +was to be set up in St. Paul's on a given Sunday, they determined to be +present to see how far this basest of idolatry had really laid hold of +London. + +The trio lived together in a little house, in a by-street in +Bloomsbury. Rose would never allow her husband to go out without her; +the times were too perilous, either for him to be in the streets, or +for her to remain alone at home. In the actual language of Ruth, she +had said to him:-- + +"_Entreat me not to leave thee:--for whither thou goest I will go; +where thou lodgest, I will lodge; . . . where thou diest, I will +die; . . . the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part +thee and me_." + +On reaching the Mansion House--the old building was still there, though +used for another purpose--they were amazed at the excitement which +prevailed in the streets. Thousands of excited people were moving +westwards, many of them evidently bound for St. Paul's. + +_Every_one seemed to be wearing the brand of the "Beast," and more than +once our trio came very near to being set upon, for that they were +defying public opinion, as well as the command of the All-Supreme +Director of consciences as well as lives--Apleon--by the absence of the +"Mark" upon them. + +Arrived at the cathedral they had no difficulty in getting in, since +the hour was early, and a rumour having obtained credence that the +great idol was to be wheeled out upon the steps of the cathedral, the +vast bulk of would-be worshippers remained outside of the huge building. + +Presently these outside must have become acquainted with the falseness +of the rumour for there was a tremendous rush into the building, until, +in three minutes, it was packed to its utmost limits. + +Ralph, George and Rose had secured seats, in the centre of the third +row, almost under the great dome, for they wanted to get as perfect a +view of the image as possible. + +The hum of several thousand voices, as the gathered people gossipped +about the image, made quite a volume of sound. Every eye was fixed on +the great golden statue. It was a wondrous piece of work and the +likeness of Apleon was an extraordinary one. The people who were +seated far back could see only from the breast upwards. But those +nearer (Ralph, and George, and Rose among them) who could see not only +the whole figure, but the plinth and the pedestal upon which it stood, +saw that the inscription on the plinth was the same as that which had +been reported as upon the first image, the one set up in the Temple at +Jerusalem--"I AM, THAT I AM!" + +A shudder passed over our trio, as they read the blasphemy. + +Now, suddenly, a richly-robed priest, holding a silver bugle to his +lips, stood out on the altar steps. The shrill bugle call for +"silence" rang through the great building, and a tomb-like hush fell +upon the multitude. + +Another priest, more gorgeously costumed than the first, came slowly +forward chanting clearly and distinctly: + +"We believe in Man, in the Religion of Humanity, Man is God, and God is +man. We believe that all the excellencies which of old, were +attributed to the God of the Bible, were but sparks struck out of the +goodnesses that were within the man Himself. Hence we no longer need +to be Divine by proxy." [1] + +The organ rolled out a gay note to which the gathered thousands chanted +a gay "Amen!" + +"_We believe_," the priest went on in his chant--"_that the living God, +is the marriage of Force and matter, of Head and Hand. And we believe +that the product of this co-ordination is in our Great Superman, the +God of the Universe, Apleon, our Superior-God, and Him we worship and +adore--_" + +The priest made a well-understood sign, and the whole mass of the +people _knelt_--they were too crowded to prostrate themselves. The +great organ pealed forth in some wondrous chordings, that were dying +down into zephyr-like breaths, when the voice of the priest broke the +comparative silence. + +In harsh, commanding tones, he cried: + +"You three rebels, kneel at once!" + +The whole congregation lifted their eyes to see two men, and a +beautiful woman between them, standing proudly, fearlessly, amid the +great kneeling throng. + +"Kneel, you apostate rebels!" thundered the priest. + +For answer, Rose lifted her strong, powerful, beautiful voice, in a +God-inspired spontaneous burst of _true_ worship, singing: + + "All Hail the power of Jesus' Name, + Let angels prostrate fall." + + +Ralph and her husband caught the inspiration and the musical key, and +the trio had reached the "Bring forth the Royal Diadem," before the +great congregation of blasphemers awoke to the full meaning of what the +song of the trio meant. Then, with a roar like ten thousand lions, +they shouted: + +"Kill them! Murder them!" + +The priest raised his hand, the bugler sounded "Silence." The old hush +fell upon the people, instantly, and the priest, with a triumphant note +ringing in his voice, and with an equally triumphant smile on his face, +cried: + +"We have anticipated the action of such rebels as these, and have +prepared for them. Outside there has been already set up an +automatically-locked scaffold--" + +With a wave of his hand towards our trio, he cried; "To the block with +them, unless they instantly worship." + +Pointing with his long index finger to the three Protesters, he +shouted: "Kneel!" + +For answer they drew themselves upright, and with a ringing gladness +began to sing: + + "Crown Jesus Lord of all!" + + +Instantly they were seized, and hurried out of one of the side +entrances. With the utmost difficulty a way was cleared for the +passage of the priests and the three victims--the bugler going ahead +sounding sharp notes of warning on his instrument. + +They reached the front of the cathedral, at last. The whole of the +space in the front, at the sides, and far away into "The Fan" was +packed with a seething, excited mass of human life. + +Twenty feet high, a light but strong scaffold had been rapidly, and +practically silently, erected--the whole structure having all its +separate parts fitted with automatic lockings. The scaffold stood just +_out_side the railings that fenced the cathedral from the "Fan." + +On the platform of the scaffold was a conical-shaped block, enamelled +in a brilliant red. A huge fellow, leaning on the handle of a +wide-bladed gleaming axe, stood by the side of the block. + +The trio of _Protestants_ were taken up the steps of the scaffold. Two +priests accompanied them. The chief of the two priests, he who had led +the chant in the cathedral, held up before the trio a silver figure of +Apleon, about eighteen inches long, and, (amid the intense silence all +around, his words were distinctly heard) cried: "Will you worship God?" + +"We _do_ worship God--but we will not worship either the Anti-christ, +Anti-God, or his image!" + +It was Ralph who, in ringing fearless tones, replied, the other two +responding with: + +"Amen! Amen! to our God who sitteth on The Throne, and to the Lamb, for +ever!" + +A savage roar swept upwards from the maddened mass below. + +Ralph was told to bow his head upon the block. He did so, while Rose +sang clear and strong: + + "Am I a soldier of the cross, + A follower of the Lamb, + And shall I fear----------" + + +The chief of the two priests, struck her heavily across the mouth and +silenced her. At the same instant the executioner held aloft, by the +hair, the severed head of Ralph Bastin. + +Yells of delight, mingled with "Long live our God Apleon!" greeted the +sight of the head. + +George Bullen's head was now upon the block, while Rose, the light of a +holy triumph in her eyes, unable to sing because of her bleeding mouth, +shouted, "Jesus! Jesus! Precious Christ!" + +She kept her eyes from the block, and turned slightly away, as the head +of her dear one was held aloft amid the frantic delighted cries of the +murderous mass below. + +It was her turn now, and she turned rapturously towards the block. But +before she could lay her head upon the blood-stained horror, the chief +of the priests thrust her forward to the near edge of the floor of the +scaffold, and, holding his hand up for silence, cried: + +"Is she too beautiful for the block?" + +He caught her up suddenly in his arms, and held her as high aloft as +his strength would permit, as he shouted: + +"Does any one want her, if you do, say so, and I will hurl her down!" + +"Behead her!" roared a voice in the crowd, and thousands of voices +joined in the cry. + +The priest dragged her to the block and laid her neck in the hollow of +it. There was a flash of steel in the sunlight, and the beautiful head +rolled into the basket. The next moment it was being held aloft by the +long, lovely hair, the people below yelling with joy. + +At a sign from the priest, the bugler sounded for "silence." Then the +priest cried: + +"So shall die every rebel against our LORD GOD, _The Emperor_!" + +With a wave of his hand towards the Cathedral behind him, he added: + +"Our worship will be continued in our Temple and, for today, at least, +worship will continue all day." + +The fools, the dupes, flocked back to the cathedral--as many as could +crowd in. Those who could not get in watched the bodies and heads of +the three martyrs for God hurled down from the scaffold on the stones +below. + +Someone suggested the river, and six lengths of line were quickly got, +and amid the howls of mingled execrations, and the notes of a fiendish +joy, the three heads and three trunks were dragged down to the +blackfriars end of the embankment. + +Here men cut the clothes from the three bodies, and the naked forms +were kicked into almost shapeless masses, before they were eventually +hurled over the embankment into the swirling muddy Thames. + +"_He, (The False Prophet) had power . . . to cause that as many as +would not worship the image of the Beast should be killed_." + +From this day there began a perfect reign of terror on the earth, for +the vast bulk of the people who had yielded utter allegiance to the +"Beast," and to his worship, became heretic-hunters. Natural affection +appeared to be actually absent from the world, and sons and daughters +betrayed fathers and mothers, husbands betrayed wives, wives husbands, +and the friend his friends. + +Thousands were beheaded every month, taking the earth over--men, women, +and children, who had learned to trust God, and who waited for the +coming Kingdom of Christ, when, having put down all enemies under his +feet, he should begin his reign of a thousand years. These saved ones, +and martyred ones, were "an innumerable multitude saved out of T H E +great tribulation, from all nations, kindreds, and peoples, and +tongues." + + + +[1] This creed, in its essence, and often in its terminology is taken +from a book already published, in which the religion of Humanism exalts +man to the place of God. (Author.) + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +A GATHERING UP. + +At this stage it seems well to the writer to gather together in a +brief--but necessarily very fragmentary fashion--some of the chief +events of the second half of Anti-christ's reign, and those immediately +preceding the millenial reign of Christ. The object of this little +volume, as well as its predecessor--"In the Twinkling of an Eye"--being +chiefly to incite in the readers of the two books, a desire to look +into the wonders of the "After Events," we can only touch upon these +things in the most disjointed fashion, many events, from necessity of +space, being untouched altogether. + + * * * * * * + +The two scenes recorded in previous chapters--the torture and beheading +of Isaac Wolferstein and his beautiful _fiancee_, Miriam Cohen, and the +beheading of three at St. Paul's--were duplicated many thousands of +times, every town and city of the wide world had its own hideous tale +of torturing and of death. + +The effect upon the bulk of the people was to deepen "the strong +delusion," as to Anti-christ, under which they laboured, so that they +fed upon "The Lie," and became abject slaves in their wills and worship +of the "Man of Sin." + +The effect of the persecution and martyrdoms upon most of the +believers--kingdom believers--was to stiffen their faith, and to +confirm their hope in the near Coming of the Christ, to take vengeance +upon his foes and deliver his people. + +The licentiousness and blasphemy of the times was as a veritable +atmosphere abroad, so that, affected by it, the love of the many +towards God waxed colder and colder, until they flung off the last +semblance of allegiance to Him, in thought, word, or deed, and wholly +given up to "The Lie," they ripened rapidly for Judgment. + +But amid the almost universal declension, there was ever the +remnant--Jew and Gentile--who "endured, seeing the invisible," and +strengthening their souls in the special tribulation promise "_He that +shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved!_" + +And these endurers shall be God's witnesses unto all nations. No +suffering, privation, no spending or being spent will be counted too +much by these tribulation-time witnesses; they will live only to serve +God in witnessing. + +The chief source of temptation and danger to the "Kingdom Believers" +will be from the ever multiplying "False Christs." Each new imposter +parading some new notion, but each in turn, either publicly slain by +order of the "False Prophet," or mysteriously disappearing. The only +likeness of imposture in them all, existed in their claim to be the +Saviour who should deliver from the awful days of tribulation which the +would-be godly were passing through. + +A similar thing preceded the first advent of our Lord, only _then_, the +sole trust of these imposters was in their own statements; but before +the coming of Christ again _to the earth_, when the cry will often be +"Lo here is Christ," and "Lo there is Christ," these imposters will +buttress their claims with the exhibition of supernatural powers. + +The "remnant" of faithful Jews which we saw in our last chapter, +escaping to the "wilderness," will be only a remnant. The main body of +the Jews of the world will have concentrated themselves in Jerusalem, +its neighbourhood, and parts of Palestine left to them after the +partition of the land by Anti-christ. Dan. xi. 9. + +It would seem as though the "remnant," meanwhile learn of God so +intimately that they become the Evangelizers of the world, preaching +the Gospel of the _coming kingdom of Christ_. Rev. xiv. 6, 7. Matt. +xxiv. 14. + +Among those Jews who were unable to escape with the "remnant," there +are also others who are loyal to God, who would not worship the Beast +or his image, many of whom are betrayed by their bigoted Jewish +relatives. All these, alike, are delivered up to Anti-christ and to +his creatures, to be tortured and to be killed. + +"_Then shall be great Tribulation, such as was not since the beginning +of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those +days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the +elect's sake, those days shall be shortened_." Matt. xxiv. 21, 22. +Dan. xii. 1. Jer. xxx. 7, 11, 14, 15. Zech. xiii 8, 9. + +May it not well be that the imprecatory Psalms, otherwise so difficult +to understand, in the virulence of their desires for vengeance, etc., +are prophetic of these days of persecution and tribulation? As well, +too, must be many of the _Prayers_ of the Psalms, etc. Ps. xxv. 2. +Ps. lxxiv. Ps. cxl. Ps. lxxix. Isaiah xxxv. 3, 4. Isaiah li. 12-15. +Micah vii. 8, 9. Luke xviii. 7, 8. + +The almost universal return of the Jew to his own land, with all the +aims of Zionism, and other kindred movements among the Hebrew people +today is, curiously enough, not marked by the _religious_ spirit, but +purely national. The comparatively few pious souls (certainly not more +than a quarter of a million, if that) who built the Temple, and +afterwards flee into the "wilderness," or are beheaded rather than +worship the Beast, or who, unable to get away in time, are beheaded for +their loyalty to God, are now left out of future count in the history +of the final fate of Jerusalem. + +The city will probably be enormously enlarged and will come to embrace +miles of suburbs, as London has absorbed towns as far distant, almost, +as Croydon, in Surrey. + +In the latter years of the great Tribulation there will appear to be a +general rising of the nations against Jerusalem--against the Jews. It +may well be, that all the powers will have become so indebted, +_financially_, to the Jews, that there shall be an universal outbreak +of Anti-Semitism, the real cause of the outbreak being inability on the +part of the nations to pay their debts, when they shall make common +cause against the Jew, hoping thus to clear off their debts, by the +destruction of their creditors. + +Preparatory to this great and final struggle, the great eastern +boundary river, the Euphrates, will be dried up. The _literal_ +accomplishment of this great physical wonder, is an absolute necessity, +if the vast hordes of the Eastern armies are to be marched to Jerusalem. + +Even as those days of the end draw nearer and nearer God's people of +that time will suffer more and yet more. + +"_Happy the dead who in the Lord do die from henceforth. Yea (saith +the Spirit) that they may rest from their toils, for their works do +follow with them. Ceased only that form of service which brings +weariness, and have found perfect happiness in the ability to continue +service without weariness_."--ROTHERHAM. + +While this is true of all the saints of all the ages, it is +specifically true of those who, in The Great Tribulation, shall lay +down their lives for God in faithful, enduring obedience. + +And now the end draws ever more rapidly near. North, East, South and +West of Palestine the armies of allies against Jerusalem close in upon +her. Had the Jewish race been as loyally devoted to their God and His +Word as they had been to Anti-christ the Deceiver, and his vile, +promulgated laws, they would have, inevitably, recognized Psalms +lxxxiii. 3, 4, as a prophecy of this time and the approach of their +foes: "They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted +against thy hidden ones." They have said, "Come, and let us cut them +off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in +remembrance." + +But God has not forgotten His promises to Israel, and the time of her +worst visitation, is to be His opportunity: + +"_Wait ye upon Me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the +prey; for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may +assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my +fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my +jealousy_." Zeph. iii. 8. "_Now also many nations are gathered +against thee (Zion,) but they know not the thoughts of the Lord, +neither understand they His counsel: for He shall gather them as the +sheaves into the floor_." Mich. iv. 11, 12. "_In that time, when I +shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also +gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of +Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for My people and for My +heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted +My land_." Joel iii. 1, 2, 9-12, 14. Zech. xiv. 1, 2. Zech. xii. 2, +3. Ps. lxviii. 1-3. Joel ii. 32. + +Against the gathered multitudes of the armed nations--every devilish +instrument of war then known, being brought to bear against the doomed +city, doomed as the allies consider it--the Jews can bring but a +comparatively feeble resistance. With seeming ease, Jerusalem would +appear to be taken. "_The city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, +and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into +captivity_, AND THE RESIDUE OF THE PEOPLE SHALL NOT BE CUT OFF FROM THE +CITY." Zech. xiv. 2. + +With great spoil, full of unholy rejoicing, their souls steeped in +pride, their hands stained with blood, the victorious armies march to +the great plain of Esdraelon to hold a mighty revel, and to prepare for +any future event. + + * * * * * * + + "How oft after anxious provisions of man + Flashes in with a silence God's unforseen plan!" + + "God is a tower without a stair + And His perfection loves despair." + + +The residue of the people of Jerusalem, who were left in the city on +the triumphant departure of the allies of Hell, were utterly broken in +spirit. Their discomfited hearts will be being prepared for some word +or sin. Will they then begin to see their national, as well as their +individual folly? Who can say for certain? But the near-to-come +events with them, would almost seem to point to something like this. +Certainly, God's unforseen plan was about to flash in upon their +despairing condition. + +The world's peoples were "_fully ripe_" for the Judgment, and the +"_sharp sickle_" of Judgment was now waiting to fall into the earth. + +First come "signs," every sign a warning, yet the peoples, the enemies +of Christ, will not hear nor see. "_Immediately after the Tribulation +of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give +her light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the +heavens shall be shaken_." Matt. xxiv. 29. Isaiah xiii. 9-10-13. +Joel ii. 30, 31. Joel iii. 15. Rev. vi. 12-14. + +"_And then_" (_after_ the Tribulation, and _after_ these + physical signs and disturbances) "_shall appear the sign +of the Son of Man in Heaven_." Matt. xxiv. 30. + +What will this sign be? We cannot actually say. The only Scriptural +hint we know of is our Lord's own word that "the Manifestation of His +Presence will be as the lightning which flashes from the one end of +heaven to the other." + +It may be that this will occur while men are horrified with the +unnatural darkness, and that the "sign" will be a sudden and momentary +cleaving of the black heavens, so that the glory of the Lord will break +through, and He will, for an instant, be revealed in close proximity to +earth. Will it be thus that the Jew will receive his sign from heaven? + +That which follows, and which should be rendered: "_Then shall all the +tribes of the land mourn_," points to the connection of this verse with +Zechariah's prophecy: "_And I will pour upon the house of David, and +upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and +supplications: and they shall look upon ME Whom they have pierced, and +they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall +be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his +firstborn_." Zech. xii. 10. + +"And again, the manner in which Zechariah's prophecy is quoted in the +Apocalypse may, perhaps, afford some slight argument in favour of the +explanation of the sign suggested above, namely, that it is Christ +Himself seen for a moment through a rift in the clouds, for John says, +'_Behold He cometh with the clouds: and every eye shall see Him, and +they also which pierced Him: and all the TRIBES OF THE LAND shall mourn +because of Him_.' + +"Thus the Jews, although they may not as yet understand all, will at +least know that it was the Messenger of Jehovah whom they slew, and +that in so doing they pierced Himself. And they will mourn with no +feigned lamentation, but as one mourns for his first-born, nay, his +only son. All their pride will have broken down; for the word will +then have been fulfilled, '_I will take away out of the midst of thee +them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty +because of My holy mountain. I will also leave in the midst of thee an +afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the +Lord_.' Zeph. ii. 11, 12. + +"Then will God look down upon the stiff-necked and rebellious people, +whom long centuries of chastisement could not subdue, and lo! a +remnant, broken-hearted and contrite, humbly confessing that '_all +their righteousnesses are as filthy rags, that they are all fading as a +leaf, and that their iniquities, like the wind, have carried them +away_.' They long for the personal interposition of God their Father, +and cry, '_Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens, that Thou wouldst +come down!_' They are ready at last, for their Messiah. Christ has +become precious to them: there is no need that He, the true Joseph, +should longer refrain Himself. He had indeed said, 'Ye shall not see +Me henceforth till ye shall say, "_Blessed is He that cometh in the +name of the Lord_."'" + +"But that word withholds Him no longer; for now their eyes are waiting +for the Lord their God, until that He have mercy upon them: their souls +are watching for Him more than they that watch for the morning." + + +(PEMBER'S "GREAT PROPHECIES.") + +_Then shall He suddenly come, "His feet shall stand in that day upon +the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the +Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and +toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley, and half of +the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the +south. And ye shall flee to MY valley, when He shall touch the valley +of the mountain to the place He separated_." Zech. xiv. 4, 5. + +In this great valley of His special making it is possible, probable, +that our Lord will shelter His people, while He is destroying the +hordes of Anti-christ. It is of this that Isaiah speaks: "_Come My +people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: +hide thyself as it were for a little moment_, UNTIL THE INDIGNATION BE +OVER PAST. _For behold the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the +inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity_." And when that awful +judgment shall be over--"_which shall burn as an oven_," they shall +come out of their shelter "_skipping as calves of the stall_." A +wondrous figure of the frolicsome calves coming out of the darkness of +their stalls into the glorious light, and into the full freshness of +the luscious meadows. + +All this time Anti-christ and his warrior hosts are camped in the plain +of Esdraelon, preparing for a fresh attack that is to utterly demolish +the Jews as a nation. + +To Apleon, The Anti-christ, word comes of the appearance of Christ, and +that He is espousing the cause of Israel. + +Satan, and his colleagues, self-blinded, suppose that they can war with +and overcome even Christ and His hosts of saints; and, determined to do +this: "_the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take +counsel together, against His Anointed_." Psa. ii. 2. + +Armageddon--the Valley of Megidda; "The Valley of Jehosaphat;" +"Bozrah," all these names are mentioned as the scene of the great final +conflict between Anti-christ and Christ, between the armies of the +earth, and the translated Saints of God who return with Christ. + +It is probable that the line of the encamped hosts of Anti-christ will +extend from Bozrah, on the southeast, to Megidda, on the North-west. +Is it we wonder, merely a coincidence that this should measure exactly +1,600 _Stadia_, the actual distance named in Rev. xiv. 16, as that over +which the blood of the judgment wine-press flowed. + +Surely Habakkuk's wonderful prophetic vision covered this great +battle-field. "God came _from Teman_, and the Holy One _from Mount +Paran_." The march of God's indignation would seem to be from Sinai, +through Idumea, past Jerusalem, and on to the mighty field of +Esdraelon's plain. + +Oh, what a scene it will be! The glory, the judgment! our Christ on +His White Horse; His eyes a flame of fire; on his head many crowns +(diamens,) vestured and girded with his title "KING OF KINGS AND LORD +OF LORDS!" his bride is with Him--for the "_Marriage of the Lamb_" has +taken place; the bride is every believer who has been gathered out of +the world by the Spirit. You, who read this, he who writes this, if so +be we are in Christ, "_looking for, and hasting the coming of our +Lord_," yes, we shall be there, we shall be His army. + +"_On white horses_," whether literal horses or not does not matter, the +term implies force, power, swift movement, even triumph. Christ's army +will be a cavalry force. Like our Lord we shall wear no +armour,--"clothed in fine linen, white, pure,"--we shall be immortal, +"_no weapon that is formed against us shall prosper_." + +Every enemy, every foe of Christ will be there. The earth-armies, the +dwellers of the earth, Demon-possessed, will be blinded, deluded by the +lie of the Anti-christ, and "The False Prophet." There is no madness +or delusion into which the most rational of men will not run when they +are demon-possessed. + +"_Outside the city_, the battle takes place, for the city has become +Holy by the recent presence of Christ. Not even a private soldier of +Anti-christ's hosts is _inside_ the city, for, it may well be, that +Christ has already appropriated it. + +"_Outside the city, the wine-press is trodden_!" wonderful figure! +"Fully ripe," is said to be the condition of the "_grapes of the vine +of the earth_." What grape, more so a _ripe_ grape, can stand the +weight of a man as his foot crushes down upon it? And the iron heel of +"The Lion of Judah," crushes out the life of these gathered hell-led, +hell-inspired hosts, "_and blood came forth out of the wine-press of +God's wrath, up to the bits of the horses for distance of 1,600 +stadia_." A river of blood 160 miles in length, and reaching to the +horses' bits in depth! Even if it be taken as a figure only, the +figure is never so great as the fact it prefigures! "_The land shall +be drunk with blood, and its dust made fat with fatness, for it is the +day of Jehovah's vengeance, the year of recompenses for the controversy +against Zion_." Isaiah xxxiv. 7, 8. + +As a picture of the absolute triumph of God, on this occasion, the +Psalmist uses the most awful figure of any in the Bible--THE LAUGHTER +OF GOD! "_He that sitteth in the Heavens SHALL LAUGH; the Lord shall +have them in derision_." Ps. ii. 4. "_God is not mocked_!" + +"_And the Beast (Anti-christ) was taken_." The ring-leader is first +taken, not slain with the others. Taken alive, he is cast into the +Lake of Fire. The confidence of the mighty host of Hell-inspired +warrior hosts, had been "_Who is like unto the Beast? Who can war with +him?_" But they see him taken, taken alive, taken without being able +to lift a finger against his captors. Tophet had been prepared for +him, and into that awful abyss he sinks to rise no more. + +"_And with him the False Prophet who wrought the miracles in his +presence_." Colleagues in evil on earth, the two are hurled into the +same Lake of Fire. + +"_And the rest were slain with the Sword of the Sitter on the horse_, +(The Conquering Christ,) _which sword proceeded out of His mouth_." +"_He speaks and it is done_." + +"_And a certain angel standing in the sun_," has been placed there +ready to call forth the final actors on this hideous battle-field, +"_cried with a great voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in +mid-heaven, 'Hither be gathered together to the great supper of God, +that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and flesh of captains of thousands, +and flesh of mighty men, and flesh of horses, and of those that sit on +them, and flesh of all (classes of people,) both free and bond, and +small and great . . . and the fowls were filled from their flesh_." +Rev. xix. + +At the great and terrible conflict there are lightnings and thunders of +unheard of force and might. "_The Lord of Hosts_," says Isaiah xxix. +6, "_shall visit with thunder, with earthquake, and great noise, with +storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire_." All through +God's judgments, during the seven years of Anti-christ, aerial +convulsions will be continual. One reason for this, during the later +events will doubtless be to overwhelm and destroy the myriad _aerial_ +engines of war used by the senselessly deluded attacking hosts arrayed +against Jerusalem and against Christ and His Saints. + +"_And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon +the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great_." Rev. xvi. 18. +Jerusalem will be split into three parts, as a result of this +earthquake. But the effect upon the nations is _utter_ ruin,--"_the +cities of the nations fell_." London, New York, Paris, Berlin, +Chicago, every other city, collapses like a rent balloon, and the +opened earth swallows up palaces and cots, men and women, and what the +overwhelming and the falling shall not slay, shall perish in the awful +conflagrations produced. + +"_And Babylon the great was remembered in the presence of God to give +her the cup of wine of the fierceness of His anger_." Babylon, the +great, the colossal city of mighty splendor, re-built, as we saw +earlier in this book, will have become exclusively a _commercial_ city. +All the vice and sin and voluptuousness of all the vilest cities of the +whole world, through all the ages, gathered up into one whole foulness, +would be as virtue compared with the foulness and vice and +voluptuousness of the Great Babylon. + +"_Fallen, Fallen, Babylon the Great_." May we gather from the +twice-repeated word "Fallen," that the collapse comprises the two +things "_Babylon, mystery!_"--the foul religious system, the false +worship,--and also Babylon _the city_? + +God does not settle His accounts every Saturday night as petty +tradesmen do. Babylon had been garnering judgment for herself, from +the beginning. And the cry of doom goes out against her, from Heaven. + +"_Render to her even as she rewarded, and double the double according +to her works; in the cup which she mixed, mix for her double; insomuch +as she glorified herself and was wanton, TO THAT PROPORTION give to her +torment and grief. Because she saith in her heart, I sit a queen and +am not a widow, and shall see no mourning, therefore, IN ONE DAY, shall +come her plagues, death, and mourning and famine, and with fire shall +she be burnt, because strong is the Lord who hath judged her_." + +And never more after this shall the foul city arise. + +Awful convulsions of the earth will take place all over the world. The +whole configuration of the earth shall be changed. Mountains and +islands, well known before, will disappear. + +With all the other aerial and other convulsions of nature, a hailstorm, +covering an enormous area, will be one of the horrors, when, putting +the weight of the stones at the lowest average, they will probably be +quite a hundred-weight each. + +And so event will follow event in such rapid succession as to puzzle +the writer how to place them wholly in consecutive order. Satan will +be taken and bound for a thousand years. The _living_ nations will +have been judged as regards their treatment of the Jews, and as to +their acceptance of the Gospel of the Kingdom. + +On, on, on, event upon event, until the glorious millennial reign of +Christ shall be ushered in. + +But before anything of which we have written in these pages can come to +pass, our precious, loving Lord must come into the air to take up His +own people to Himself. For this every true Christian should be +looking, waiting, watching,--and _working_ while they wait, for He has +said "_Occupy_ till I come." + + + "So I am watching quietly + Every day, + Whenever the sun shines brightly + I rise and say,-- + "Surely it is the shining of His face," + And look unto the gates of His high place + Beyond the sea, + For I know He is coming shortly + To summon me. + And when a shadow falls across the window + Of my room, + Where I am working my appointed task, + I lift my head to watch the door, and ask + If He is come? + And the Angel answers sweetly + In my home,---- + "Only a few more shadows, + And He will come." + "Even so, Lord Jesus! Come! Come quickly!" + + + + +"FINIS?" No! WAITING! + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARK OF THE BEAST*** + + +******* This file should be named 18815.txt or 18815.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/8/1/18815 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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