diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/68722-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/68722-0.txt | 8278 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 8278 deletions
diff --git a/old/68722-0.txt b/old/68722-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 000504f..0000000 --- a/old/68722-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8278 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of “In the twinkling of an eye”, by -Sydney Watson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: “In the twinkling of an eye” - -Author: Sydney Watson - -Release Date: August 9, 2022 [eBook #68722] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Richard Hulse and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team - at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - generously made available by The Internet Archive/American - Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK “IN THE TWINKLING OF AN -EYE” *** - - - - - - - “IN THE - TWINKLING - OF AN EYE” - - By Sydney Watson - - _Author of_ - - “The Mark of the Beast” - “Life’s Lookout”, “Wops, the Waif”, - Etc. - - Copyright 1918 - - THE BIOLA BOOK ROOM - BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES - 536-558 South Hope Street - Los Angeles, Cal. - - - - -AUTHOR’S FOREWORD - -[Illustration] - - -Some years ago, I received from an important Southern town, a letter -from a Ladies’ Temperance Committee, to this effect:—“Sir, We, the -undersigned, are a committee of Ladies, who, for many years, have -purchased your “Stories for the People” in very large numbers, for free -distribution and loan; always assuming that you were to be thoroughly -relied upon as an upholder of strict Total-abstinence principles. But -your latest story has sadly undeceived us, as regards your usefulness as -a worker in the great cause we are pledged to uphold and further. On _pp_ -—— of your last story, you make your hero, returning from a day’s run -with the hounds, come upon a woman lying in a lonely place, who has been -injured in a trap accident. You say, speaking of your hero’s prompt help -to the woman, that “taking his hunting flask from his pocket, he forced -a few drops of the brandy between the woman’s lips, etc.” Now, sir, we -contend that had you had the cause of Total-abstinence fully at heart, -you would have made that huntsman’s flask to have contained _water_.” - -So much for the letter. The moral of it lies on the surface. There are -some persons who seem unable to see anything from the side of _real, -actual_ life—that Ladies’ committee could not—whose vision is narrowed -down to the tiny slit of their own cramped, cabined life and thought, -they have no true _out_look upon life, as a whole. - -I preface this foreword with the above incident, because I am perfectly -certain that the standpoint from which I have written this book will be -utterly, absolutely misunderstood by many earnest, loving-hearted people, -whose eyes, with my own, have caught the _up_ward gaze “from whence we -look for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.” - -I would at once acknowledge that the inceptive idea of writing such a -book as this was born within me from reading “Long Odds,” that wondrous -little half-penny booklet written by the late General Robertson, I -believe, a booklet that has been so marvellously “owned and blessed.” - -For five or six years the idea for this present volume has been simmering -and seething in my mind. The first and only real problem I had to face in -the matter was that of the _principle_ involved in using the fictional -form to clothe so sacred a subject (for, to me, the near Return of our -Lord is the _most_ sacred of all subjects.) But the problem of the -_principle_ was speedily settled, as I remembered how wondrously God had -owned and blessed “Long Odds,” in which the fictional is the vehicle of -the teaching. - -Then, too, there are, I know, myriads of people into whose hands “Long -Odds,” could never, by any chance, fall—for there are multitudes who -will not so much as glance at, or touch a tract, while a volume will -easily win its way among all classes. There is an enormous percentage of -attendants at our churches and chapels, and many otherwise very earnest -Christian workers, to whom the whole subject of the Lord’s Second Coming -is an absolutely unknown realm of Truth—and these I would fain reach and -arouse with the message of this book. - -To those Christians who are looking for the Return of the Lord, to -whom the subject is the most tenderly sacred of all subjects, who will -at first sight condemn the use of the fictional element, the dramatic -colour in this book—and many good people will, I am assured—I would -say, first, that the book is not written for them, and second, that, -our Lord Himself, speaking of His own Return, used two very remarkable -illustrations from life’s strangest dramas. First, “_As it was in the -days of Noah, even so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. -They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until -THE DAY_, etc.” Now, think what a myriad _dramas_ were being enacted -when the flood came. And had the disciples asked their Lord, privately, -after His utterance, to explain more fully what He meant, what thrilling -stories He _could_, He _doubtless WOULD have sketched_. If any Christian -cavils at the dramatic in this book, I would refer him or her to Christ’s -own pointing in the picture of Noah’s time, then bid them fill out, by -help of the feeblest, simplest imagination, the picture of the myriad -dramas that were being enacted when that flood came, of old time. Then, -if the objector is honest, and is _capable_ of the least imagination, he -will say “I see! and, now that I see this fact, my wonder is _not_ that -there is a certain dramatic freedom in this book, but that the writer has -kept so powerful a restraint upon his pen.” - -Again, Christ said:—“_As it was in the days of LOT_,” etc. Now think over -_this_ saying of our Lord’s, and remembering what is actually recorded -in Genesis, of the _vice_ and _crime_ of Sodom, (and how, alas! even -when saved from the doomed city, Lot and his daughters brought away much -of the vicious, criminal essence of the place with them,) think how the -Return of our Lord, presently, will mean the snatching away of many of -His own out of scenes infinitely more awful than anything I have used -herein, or ever hinted at. A book written on the subject here chosen, -and written in the vein our Lord Himself suggests in the two passages -referred to above, could not have been written in any other way—to be -true to life, and to the subject. - -Should any reader object to the expository lectures of Major H——, as -the chief vehicle for the doctrinal teaching, I would say that personal -experience has proved the style to be infinitely more acceptable to -readers than that of the dialogue mode. - -I have purposely placed special emphasis on the Jewish side of the -subject, since the Jewish question is infinitely more closely enwrapped -with the fact of our Lord’s near return, than many speakers and writers -give prominence to. - - SYDNEY WATSON. - -“THE FIRE,” VERNHAM DEAN, HUNGERFORD, BERKS. - - - - -CONTENTS - -[Illustration] - - - Chapter Page - - I.—TAKEN AT THE FLOOD 11 - - II.—“THE COURIER” 20 - - III.—FLOTSAM 26 - - IV.—“I ONLY REAPED WHAT I SOWED” 33 - - V.—“LILY WORK” 38 - - VI.—AN INTERESTING TALK 44 - - VII.—“COMING” 55 - - VIII.—REVERIE 64 - - IX.—A THREAT 75 - - X.—IN THE NICK OF TIME 82 - - XI.—“LONG ODDS” 93 - - XII.—THE CENTER OF THE EARTH 101 - - XIII.—A DEMON 110 - - XIV.—MAJOR H—— ON “THE COMING!” 118 - - XV.—THE ADDRESS 124 - - XVI.—HER CABIN COMPANION 136 - - XVII.—CASTING A SHOE 142 - - XVIII.—TOLD IN A CAB 154 - - XIX.—TOM HAMMOND REVIEWING 164 - - XIXa.—“MY MENTOR” 176 - - XX.—THE PLACARD 185 - - XXI.—WAS HE MAD 189 - - XXII.—FROM THE PROPHET’S CHAMBER 195 - - XXIII.—PASSOVER! 200 - - XXIV.—“THIS SAYING SHALL COME TO PASS” 209 - - XXV.—FOILED! 218 - - XXVI.—A CASTAWAY 221 - - XXVII.—A STRICKEN CITY 226 - - XXVIII.—“HALLELUJAH LASS” 232 - - XXIX.—IN ST. PAUL’S 238 - - XXX.—CONCLUSION 246 - - - - -“IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE” - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -TAKEN AT THE FLOOD. - - -The man walked aimlessly amid the thronging press. He was moody and -stern. His eyes showed his disappointment and perplexity. At times, about -his mouth there lurked an almost savage expression. As a rule he stood -and walked erect. Only the day before this incident one of a knot of -flower-girls in Drury Lane had drawn the attention of her companions to -him as he strode briskly along the pavement, and in a rollicking spirit -had sung, as he passed her: - - “Stiff, starch, straight as a larch, - Every inch a soldier; - Fond o’ his country, fond o’ his queen, - An’ hawfully fond o’ me.” - -But to-day there is nothing of the soldier in the pose or gait of Tom -Hammond. - -Yet the time and place ought to have held his attention sufficiently to -have kept him alert to outward appearance. It was eleven in the forenoon. -The place was Piccadilly. He came abreast of Swan and Edgar’s. The -pavement was thronged with women on shopping bent. More than one of them -shot an admiring glance at him, for he had the face, the head, of a king -among men. But he had no eyes for these chance admirers. - -Tom Hammond was thirty years of age, a journalist, and an exceptionally -clever one, at the time we make his acquaintance. He was a keen, shrewd -man, was gifted with a foresight and general prescience that were almost -remarkable, and hence was commonly regarded by his journalistic friends -as “a coming man.” He had strongly-fixed ideas of what a great daily -paper should be, but never having seen any attempt that came within -leagues of his ideal, he longed—lusted would not be too strong a term—for -the time and opportunity when, with practically unlimited capital behind -him, and with a perfectly free hand to use it, he could issue his ideal -journal. - -This morning he seems farther from the goal of his hopes than ever. For -two years he had been sub-editor of a London daily that had made for -itself a great name—of a sort. There were certain reasons which had -prompted him to hope, to expect, the actual editorship before long. But -now his house of cards had suddenly tumbled about his ears. - -A change had recently taken place in the composition of the syndicate -that financed the journal. There were wheels within wheels, the existence -of some of which he had never once guessed, and which in their whirling -had suddenly produced unexpected results. The editor-in-chief had -resigned, and the newly elected editor proved to be a man who had, years -before, done him, Tom Hammond, the foulest wrong one journalist can do to -another. - -Under the present circumstances there had been no honourable course open -for Hammond but to resign. That morning he had found his resignation not -only accepted, but he found himself practically dismissed. - -Enclosed in the letter of acceptance of his resignation was a cheque -covering the term of his notice, together with the intimation that his -services would cease from the time of his receipt of the cheque. - -His dejection, at that moment when we meet him, was caused not so much at -finding himself out of employment as from the consciousness that the new -editor-elect had accomplished this move with a view to his degradation in -the eyes of his profession—in fact, out of sheer spite. - -To escape the crowd that almost blocked the pavement in front of Swan and -Edgar’s windows, he turned sharply into the road, and literally ran into -the arms of a young man. - -“Tom Hammond!” - -“George Carlyon!” - -The greeting flew simultaneously from the lips of the two men. They -gripped hands. - -“By all that’s wonderful!” cried Carlyon, still wringing his friend’s -hand. “Do you know, Tom, I am actually up here in town for one purpose -only—to hunt you up.” - -“To hunt me up!” - -“Oh, let’s get out of this crush, old man,” interrupted Carlyon. - -The pair steered their way through the traffic, crossed the Circus, -stopped for a moment at the beautiful Shaftesbury Fountain, then struck -across to the Avenue. In the comparative lull of that walk Carlyon went -on: - -“Yes, I’ve run up to town this morning to find you out and ask you one -question: Are you so fixed up—excuse the Americanism, old boy. I’ve a -dashing little girl cousin, from the States, staying with my mother, -and—well, you know, old fellow, how it is. Man’s an imitative creature, -and all that, and absorbs dialect quicker than anything else under the -sun. But what I was going to say was this: are you too fixed up with your -present newspaper to forbid your entertaining the thought of a real plum -in the journalistic market?” - -Hammond’s customary alert look returned to his face. He was now “every -inch a soldier,” as he cried, excitedly, “Don’t keep me in suspense, -Carlyon; tell me quickly what you mean.” - -“Let’s jump into a gondola, Tom. I can talk better as we ride.” - -Carlyon had caught the eye of a cab-driver, and the next moment the two -friends were being driven along riverwards. - -“Someone, some Johnnie or other,” began Carlyon, as the two men settled -themselves back in the cab, “once called the hansom cab the gondola of -London’s streets——” - -He caught the quick, impatient movement of Hammond’s face, and with a -light laugh went on: - -“But you’re on thorns, old boy, to hear about the journalistic plum. -Well, here goes. You once met my uncle, Sir Archibald Carlyon?” - -Hammond nodded. - -“He is crazy to start a daily,” said Carlyon. “It is no new craze with -him; he has been itching to do it for years. And now that gold has been -discovered on that land of his in Western Australia, and he is likely to -be a multi-millionaire—the concessions he has already sold have given -him a clear million,—now that he is rich beyond all his dreams, he won’t -wait another day; he will be a newspaper proprietor. It’s a case of that -kiddie in the bath, Tom, doncher-know, that’s grabbing for the soap—‘he -won’t be happy till he gets it.’” - -“He wants to find at once a good journalist, who is also a keen business -man; one who will take hold of the whole thing. To the right man he will -give a perfectly free hand, will interfere with nothing, but be content -simply to finance the affair.” - -An almost fierce light was burning in the eyes of the eager, listening -Hammond. A thousand thoughts rioted through his brain, but he uttered no -word; he would not interrupt his friend. - -“I told Nunkums last night, when he was bubbling and boiling over with -his project, that I had heard you say it was easier to drop a hundred or -two hundred thousand pounds over the starting of a new paper than perhaps -over any other venture in the world. - -“Nunkums just smiled as I spoke, dropped a walnut into his port glass, -and said quietly, ‘Then I’ll drop them.’ - -“He hooked that walnut out of his wine with the miniature silver -boathook—he had the thing made for him for the purpose,—devoured the -wine-saturated nut, then smiled back into my face, as he said: ‘Yes, -Georgie, I am quite prepared to drop my hundred, two hundred, three -hundred thousand, if needs be, as I did my walnut. But I am equally -hopeful—if I can secure the right man to edit and manage my paper,—that I -shall eventually hook out an excellent dividend for my outlay. I want a -man who not only knows how to do his own work well, as an editor, but one -who has the true instinct in choosing his staff.’ - -“Of course, Tom, I trotted you out before him. He remembered you, of -course, and jumped at the idea of getting you, if you were to be got. -The upshot of it is, nothing would satisfy him but that I should come -up by an early train this morning—early bird catches the worm, and all -that kind of business, you know,—and now, in spite of the fact that my -particular worm had wriggled and squirmed miles from his usual habitat, -I’ve caught him. Now, tell me, are you open to treat with Sir Archibald?” - -“Yes, and can begin business this very day!” Hammond laughed with the -abandon of a boy, as he told, in a few sentences, the story of his -dismissal. - -“Good!” Carlyon, in his own exuberant glee, slapped his friend’s knee. - -“Sir Archibald,” he went on, “was to come up by the 10:05 from our place, -due at Waterloo at 11:49. He’ll be fixed up—“Hail Columbia!” again—at the -hotel by this time. That’s where we are driving to now, and—ah! here we -are!” - -A moment later the two men were mounting the hotel steps. One of the -servants standing in the vestibule recognized Carlyon, and saluted him. - -“My uncle arrived, Bates?” Carlyon asked. - -“Yes, sir, and a young lady with him!” - -Carlyon turned quickly to Hammond. - -“That’s Madge, my American cousin, Tom. I’m awfully glad she has come; I -should like you to know her.” - -Turning to the servant, he asked, “Same old rooms, Bates?” - -“Yes, sir.” - -Three steps at a time, laughing and talking all the while, Carlyon, -ignoring the lift, raced up the staircase, followed more slowly by his -friend. - -Hammond never wholly forgot the picture of the sitting-room and -its occupant, as he entered with Carlyon. The room was a large one, -exquisitely furnished, and flooded with a warm, mellow light. A small but -cheerful-looking wood fire burned upon the tiled hearth, the atmosphere -of the room fragrant with a soft, subtle odour, as though the burning -wood were scented. From a couch, as the two men entered, a girl rose -briskly, and faced them. She made a picture which Tom never forgot. The -warm, mellow light that filled the room seemed to clothe her as she stood -to meet them. “America” was stamped upon her and her dress, upon the -arrangement of her hair, upon the very droop of her figure. She was tall, -fair, with that exquisite colouring and smoothness of complexion that is -the product of an unartificial, hygienic life. - -Her face could not be pronounced wholly beautiful, but it was a face that -was full of life and charm, her eyes being especially arrestive. - -“Awfully glad you came up, Madge!” cried Carlyon. “I’ve run my quarry -down, and this is my own particular, Tom Hammond.” - -He made a couple of mockingly-funny elaborate bows, saying: “Miss Madge -Finisterre, of Duchess County, New York. Mr. Tom Hammond, of—oh, shades -of Cosmopolitanism!—of everywhere, of London just at present.”—Tom bowed -to the girl.—She returned his salute, and then held forth her hand in a -frank, pleasant way, as she laughingly said, “I have heard so much of -Tom Hammond during the last few days, that I guess you seem like an old -acquaintance.” - -Tom shook hands with the maiden, and for a moment or two they chatted as -freely and merrily as though they were old acquaintances. - -The voice of Carlyon broke into their chat, asking: “Where’s Nunkums, -Madge?” - -Before the girl could reply, the door opened and Sir Archibald entered -the room. - -One glance into his face would have been sufficient to have told Tom the -type of man he had to deal with, even if he had not seen him before. -A warm-hearted, unconventional, impulsive man, a perfect gentleman in -appearance, but a merry, hail-fellow-well-met man in his dealings with -his fellows. - -With a bit of mock drama in the gesture, Madge Finisterre flourished her -hand towards the newcomer, crying, - -“Sir Archibald, George? Lo, he is here!” She flashed a quick glance to -the piano as she added, “If only I had known you were about to enter, -uncle, I would have treated you to a few crashing bars of stage-life -entree-music.” - -“Go away with your nonsense!” laughed the old man. - -“Nonsense, indeed!” the girl laughed as merrily as the old man. Then, -with a sudden, swift movement, she crossed to the piano, struck one sharp -note upon it, and whispered in well-feigned hoarseness, “Slow music for -the three conspirators as they retire to plot the destruction of London’s -press, and the accumulation of untold millions by their own special -journalistic production!” - -Her fingers moved over the ivory keys, and low, weird, creepy music -filled the room with its eerie notes. - -Sir Archibald and George Carlyon fell in with the girl’s mood, and crept -doorwards on tiptoe. - -“Number three,” hissed the girl. - -And Tom Hammond laughingly followed with the two other men. - -“She is a treat, is Madge!” laughed George Carlyon, as the three men -passed through the doorway and made for the study-like room of Sir -Archibald. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -“THE COURIER.” - - -For two hours the three men held close conference together. At the end -of that time all the preliminaries of the new venture were settled. Tom -Hammond had explained his long-cherished views of what the ideal daily -paper should be. Sir Archibald was delighted with the scheme, and, in -closing with Hammond, gave him a perfectly free hand. - -“You were on the point of saying something about a striking poster to -announce the coming paper, Mr. Hammond,” said the old baronet. - -“Yes,” Tom replied; “I think a great deal may be done by arresting -the attention of the people—those in London especially. My idea for -a poster is this: the name of the paper is to be ‘The Courier.’ Very -well, let us have an immense sheet poster, first-class drawing, striking -but harmonious colouring, and bold, arrestive title of the paper and -announcement of its issue. Following the title, I would have in the -extreme left a massive sign-post, a prominent arm of the structure -bearing the legend ‘To-morrow.’ On the extreme right of the picture I -would put another sign-post, the arm of which should bear the words ‘The -Day After To-morrow.’ I would have a splendidly-drawn mounted courier, -the horse galloping towards the right-hand post, having left ‘To-morrow’ -well in the rear.” - -The old baronet exclaimed, “Rush the thing on! Flood the hoardings of -London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Cardiff—all the -large towns, and the smaller ones as well, if you can get hoardings big -enough. Don’t study the expense, either in the get-up or in the issue of -the picture. Don’t let the pill-sellers or cocoa or mustard people beat -us.” - -The old man sprang to his feet and paced the floor, rubbing his hands, -crying continually, - -“Good! good! We’ll wake old England up. We’ll——” - -“Toddle into lunch,” interrupted George Carlyon. “That’s the third -summons we’ve had!” - -Tom Hammond sat next to Madge at luncheon, and was charmed with her easy, -unconventional manners. But his mind was too full of the new paper, of -the great opportunity that had come to him so unexpectedly, to be as -wholly absorbed with the charm of her personality as he might otherwise -have been. - -He did not linger over the luncheon table. - -“There are one or two fellows, Sir Archibald,” he explained, “whom I -should like to secure on my staff at once. I don’t want to lose even an -hour.” - -As he bade Madge Finisterre good-bye, he expressed the hope that he might -see her again soon, and the girl in reply allowed her eyes unconsciously -to express more than her words. - -“She is the most charming woman I ever met,” he told himself, as he -followed Sir Archibald into his room for the final word for which the -baronet had asked. George Carlyon had remained behind with Madge. - -“It was about the first working expenses I wanted to speak to you, Mr. -Hammond,” the baronet began. They were seated in the baronet’s room. - -“I will have fifty thousand pounds—or shall we say a hundred -thousand?—deposited, at once, in your name at—what bank?” - -“Any good bank you please, Sir Archibald, so long as the particular -branch is fairly central.” - -“Capital and Counties—how will that do?” the baronet asked, adding, “I -always bank with them myself.” - -“That will do, sir.” - -“How about the Ludgate Hill branch, Mr. Hammond?” - -“Could not be better, sir.” - -“Settled, then, Mr. Hammond!” There were a few more words exchanged -between master and man, and then they parted. - -As Tom Hammond strode along the Embankment towards Waterloo Bridge, his -heart was the heart of a boy again. - -“Is life worth living!” he cried inwardly, answering his own question -with the rapturous words: “In this hour I know nothing else that earth -could give me to make life more joyous!” - -People passing him saw his face radiant with a wondrous joy. It’s rare -to see peace, even, in faces in our great cities. It is rarer still to -see joy’s gleam. He allowed his glance to flash all around him, as he -murmured, “I am glad, too, that I am in London. Who dare say that London -is dull, or grim, or sordid? Who was it that wrote, “No man curses the -town more heartily than I, but after travelling by mountains, plain, -desert, forest, and on the deep sea, one comes back to London and finds -it the most wonderful place of them all!” - -“Ah! It was Roger Pocock, I believe, wrote that sentiment. Roger Pocock, -‘I looks towards yer, sir. Them’s my senterments!’” - -He laughed low and gleefully at his own merry mood. Then as his eyes took -in the river, the moving panorama of the Embankment, and caught the throb -of the mighty pulsing of life all about him, Le Gallienne’s lines came to -him, and, while he moved onward, he murmured: - - “London, whose loveliness is everywhere. - London so beautiful at morning light, - One half forgets how fair she is at night. - - “London as beautiful at set of sun - As though her beauty had just begun! - London, that mighty sob, that splendid tear, - That jewel hanging in the great world’s ear. - - “Ah! of your beauty change no single grace, - My London with your sad mysterious face.” - -He moved forward in a strange rapture of spirit. He forgot even -“beautiful London”; he was momentarily unconscious how he travelled -or whither. He might have been blind or deaf for all that he now saw -or heard. The drone of a blind beggar’s voice reading the Scriptures, -however, presently had power to break his trance. He paused a moment -before the man. - -“This same Jesus,” droned the blind man’s voice, “who is taken up from -you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go.” - -Hammond dropped a sixpence into the beggar’s box, and moved away, the -wonder of the words he had just heard read arresting all his previous -thoughts of his glad success. - -“Shall so come in like manner!” he murmured. “I wonder what it means?” - -The next instant a woman’s pitiful voice filled his ear, crying: - -“For the love of God, good sir, give me the price of a piece of bread.” - -He turned sharply towards her. Her face was haggard and hunger-filled; -her eyes were wells of despair. He slipped his finger and thumb into the -fob of his coat. The first coin that came to his touch was a shilling. He -dropped it into the emaciated, outstretched palm. - -The wretched creature gazed at the coin, then at him. Her lips moved, but -no words came from them. Her eyes filled with a rush of tears. He passed -on. But the incident moved him strangely. - -“If Christ,” he mused, “ever comes back to earth again, surely, surely He -will deliver it from such want and misery as that!” - -He paused and looked back at the woman. Her face was buried in her hands. -Her form was shaking with sobs. Curiosity tempted him to go back. - -As he came abreast of her, a child, a girl about nine, barefooted and -tired-looking, was saying to the woman, “What’s the matter, missis? -Wouldn’t that swell giv’ yer nuffink w’en yer arst ’im?” - -“Give me nothing?” The woman glanced down at the child. “Why, he is -kinder than Gawd, fur he give me a shilling!” - -At this Tom Hammond hurried away. - -“Kinder than God!” he murmured. “Oh, God, that we should have it in our -power to buy such happiness for so small a sum!” - -“Kinder than God” he repeated to himself. He was now mounting the granite -steps to the bridge. “Of course, one knows better; yet how difficult of -proof it would become, if one had to explain it to that poor soul, and -to the thousands like her in this great city!” - -For the first time since leaving Sir Archibald his own joy was forgotten. -The awful problem of London’s destitution had supplanted London’s beauty -in his thoughts. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -FLOTSAM. - - -“Only nine hours!” - -Tom Hammond laughed amusedly at his own murmured thought. It seemed -ridiculous almost to try to believe that only nine hours before he had -been a discharged journalist, while now he was at the head of what he -knew would be the greatest journalistic venture London—yea, the world—had -ever seen. - -He had just dined. He felt that he wanted some kind of movement, some -distraction, to relieve the tension. He was in that frame of mind when -some kind of adventure was necessary, although he did not tell himself -this, being hardly conscious of his own need. He knew that the haunts of -his fellows—club, theatre, music-hall—would only serve to irritate him. -Some instinct turned his feet riverwards. - -It was now a quarter past seven o’clock. Night had fallen upon London. -Tom Hammond crossed the great Holborn thoroughfare. The heavier traffic -of London’s commercial life had almost ceased. The omnibuses going west -were filled with theatregoers, and other pleasure-seekers. Hansoms -flitted swiftly either way, each holding a man and a woman in evening -dress. - -Having crossed the roadway, he paused for a moment at the corner of -Chancery Lane, and let his eye take in all the scene. And again Le -Gallienne came to his mind, and he softly murmured: - - “Ah! London! London! our delight, - Great flower that opens but at night, - Great city of the midnight sun, - Whose day begins when day is done. - - “Lamp after lamp against the sky - Opens a sudden beaming eye, - Leaping alight on every hand, - The iron lilies of the Strand, - - “Like dragonflies the hansoms hover - With jewelled eyes to catch the lover; - The streets are full of lights and loves, - Soft gowns and flutter of soiled doves.” - -He turned with a faint sigh, and began to pass on down Chancery Lane. - -“Oh, London!” he mused, “thy surface may be wonderful and beautiful; but -below—what are you below the surface?” - - “The human moths about the light - Dash and cling in dazed delight, - And burn and laugh, the world and wife, - For this is London, this is life! - - “Upon thy petals butterflies, - But at thy root, some say, there lies - A world of weeping, trodden things, - Poor worms that have not eyes or wings.” - -He moved onwards in the direction of the Law Courts. Presently he neared -the Waterloo Bridge approach. He had, all unrealized by himself, since he -left the restaurant where he had dined, been walking towards the river. -A moment or two after, and he was leaning on the parapet of the bridge, -looking down into the dark waters. Sluggish, oil-like in appearance, as -seen in the dull gleam of the lamps, the river moved seawards. A sudden -longing to get out upon those dark waters came to him. - -“If only——” he mused. Then, turning briskly, he came face to face with a -man in a blue guernsey, who was crossing the bridge. It was the very man -of his half-uttered thought. “If only I could run up against Bob Carter!” -he had almost said. - -“Good evening, Mister Ham’nd.” The man in the guernsey saluted with a -thick, tar-stained forefinger as he recognized Tom Hammond. - -“Good evening, Carter.” Hammond laughed as he added, “I was just wishing -I could meet you, for I felt I should like to get out on the river.” - -“I’m jes’ going as fur as Lambeff, sir. Ef yer likes ter go wif me, -you’ll do me proud, sir; yer know that, I knows!” - -A few minutes later the two men sat in Carter’s boat. Hammond, in the -stern, was steering. The man Carter, on the first thwart, manipulated the -oars. Hammond had known the man about a year. He had done him a kindness -that the waterman had never forgotten. - -“Aw’d go to ther world’s end fur yer, sir,” he had often said since. - -The man was ordinarily a silent companion, and to-night after a few -exchanged words between the pair, he was as silent as usual. - -Down the wide, turgid river the boat, propelled by Carter’s two oars, -shot jerkily, the rise and fall of the glow in the rower’s pipe-bowl -synchronizing with the lift and dip of the oars. - -Hammond enjoyed the silence. There was a weirdness about this night -trip on the river that fitted in with his mood. His brain had been -considerably overwrought that day. The quiet row was beginning to soothe -the overwrought nerves. Where he sat in the stern of the boat, he -faced the clock-tower at Westminster. The gleaming windows of the great -embankment hotels lay behind him. A myriad electric lights were on his -right hand. The gloom and darkness of the unlighted wharfage on the -Surrey side were on his left. - -Only by a waterway miracle Carter cleared an anchored barge that, defying -the laws of the river, carried no warning light. - -“Drat ’em!” growled the man Carter. “They oughter do a stretch in -Portlan’ or Dartmoor fur breakin’ the lor. There’s many a ’onest waterman -whose boat’s foun’ bottom-up, or smashed to smithereens, an’ whose body’s -foun’, or isn’t, jes, as the case may be, all becos’ they lazy houn’s is -too ’ide-boun’ to light a lamp, cuss ’em!” - -His growl died away in his throat. The glowing fire of his pipe rose and -fell quicker than ever, telling of a fierce anger burning within him. - -“Ssh!” he hissed. Hammond saw that his face was turned shorewards. He -heaved aft towards Hammond, and whispered, “Kin yer see that woman, sir?” -He jerked his chin in the direction of a line of moored barges. - -Hammond had turned his head, and could plainly discern the form of a -woman standing on the edge of the outer barge of the cluster. - -The men in the boat sat still, but watchful. - -“Do she mean sooerside, sir?” whispered Carter. “Looks like it, sir. -Don’t make a soun’.” - -Even as he spoke the woman leaped into the air. There was a low scream, a -splash, a leap of foam flashed dully for one instant, then all was still -again. - -The waterman plied his oars furiously. Hammond steered for the spot where -that foam had splashed. An instant later the boat was over the place -where the body had disappeared. Carter lay on his oars, and peered into -the darkness on one side. Hammond strained his eye on the other side. - -With startling suddenness a hand darted upwards within a foot of where -Hammond sat in the stern of the boat. In the same instant the woman’s -head appeared. Hammond reached out excitedly, and caught the back hair -of the woman, twisting his fingers securely into the knot of hair at the -back of her head. - -Carter shipped his oars, and in two minutes the wretched woman was safe -in the boat. Her drenched face gleamed white where they laid her. A low -whimpering sob broke from her. - -“Turn ’er over on her face a little, sir, while I makes the boat fast fur -a minute or two, sir,” jerked out the waterman. - -“Pore soul ov ’er!” he went on, knotting his painter to a bolt in the -stern of a barge. “She ’ave took in a bellyful of Thames water, an’ it -ain’t filtered no sort, that’s sartin!” - -Hammond had by this time turned the woman over on her face. - -Carter came aft bearing a water-beaker in his hands. - -“I’ll lift her legs, sir,” he said, “and you put this beaker under her, -jes’ above her knees; that’ll ’elp her a bit.” - -That was done, and almost instantly the woman was very sick. - -“In my locker there, sir, I’ve got a drop o’ whisky. I keeps it there fur -’mergencies like this,” said Carter. - -Hammond moved to allow the man to reach a seat-locker in the stern. The -next minute, while Hammond supported the woman, the waterman poured a -few drops of the spirit down her throat. - -She coughed and sputtered, but the draught restored her. She began to cry -in a low, whimpering way. - -“We must get her ashore, Carter,” cried Hammond. “I’ll take the oars, -and, as you know the riverside better than I do, just steer into the -nearest landing-place you know.” - -Carter leaped to the bows, cast off the painter, and hurried aft again. - -“Jes’ ’long yere, sir, there’s an old landin’ as’ll jes’ serve us. Wots -yer fink ter do wi’ the pore soul, sir—not ’and her over to the perlice?” - -“No, neither the police nor workhouse, Carter. I wish I could see her -face, and see what kind of woman she is.” - -By way of reply, Carter struck a match, and lit a small bull’s-eye -lantern. When the wick had caught light, he flashed it on the face of the -woman. - -Her eyes were closed, her face was deadly pale. Her hair was dishevelled. -But in the one flashing glance Hammond took at her, he recognized her. - -“It’s Mrs. Joyce!” he muttered half-aloud and in amazed tones. - -“Know ’er, sir?” asked the waterman. - -“A little!” he replied. “Her husband is a reporter—a drinking scamp.” - -Carter shut off the light of the bull’s-eye, at that moment. - -“We’re jes’ ’ere now, sur, so’s best not to be callin’ ’tention like wi’ -a light.” - -He steered the boat into a kind of narrow alley-way between two crazy old -wharves. - - * * * * * - -Hammond, rightly gauging the kindly heart of his landlady, had brought -the drenched woman in a cab to his lodgings. She was still in a -half-fainting condition when he carried her into the house. In two -sentences he explained the situation to the landlady, whose natural -kindness and loyalty to her lodger made her willing to aid his purpose of -rescue. - -“I will carry her up to the bath-room,” he said. “Let your girl get a cup -of milk heated as hot as can be sipped, while you bath this poor soul -quickly in very hot water. Then let her be got to bed, and have some -good, nourishing soup ready. She’ll probably sleep after that. And in the -morning—well, the events of the morning will take their own shape.” - -Half-an-hour later, as Hammond took a cup of coffee, he had the -satisfaction of knowing that the woman he had saved was in bed, and doing -well. - -“Poor soul!” he mused. “That brute of a husband has probably driven her -to this attempt on her life. I wonder what her history was before she -married, for I remember how it struck me, that day when I saw her at the -office, that she was evidently a woman of some culture.” - -It was nearly ten now. He had no desire to go out again. It wanted two -hours quite to his usual bed-time. But a strange sense of drowsiness -began to steal over him, and he went off to his bed. - -“What a day this has been!” he muttered, as he laid his head on the -pillow. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -“I ONLY REAPED WHAT I SOWED.” - - -Hammond awaited the woman whom he had saved from drowning. - -“She has slept fairly well,” the landlady told him, “and I made her eat a -good breakfast that I carried up to her myself, Mr. Hammond!” - -Now he waited to speak to her. A moment or two more, and the landlady -ushered her into the room, then slipped away. - -“How can I ever repay you, sir!” cried the woman, seizing the hand that -Hammond held out to her. - -For a moment or two her emotion was too great for further speech. Hammond -led her to an armchair and seated her. She sobbed convulsively for a -moment or two. He allowed her to sob. Presently tears came. The paroxysm -passed, the tears relieved her, and she lifted her sad, beautiful eyes to -his face. - -“You know—oh, yes, you must know, Mr. Hammond—(I recognized you last -night)—how I came to be in the water. I tried to take my life. I was -miserable, despairing! God forgive me.” - -His strong eyes were full of a rare tenderness, as he said, “But, Mrs. -Joyce, you surely know that death is not the end of all existence. I am -not what would be called a religious man, but every fibre of my inward -being tells me that death does not end all.” - -He saw a shiver pass over her, as she hoarsely replied, “I, too, realize -that this morning, Mr. Hammond. But last night the madness of an -overwhelming despair was upon me. My life had been a literal hell for -years, until yesterday I could bear it no longer. I was famished with -hunger, sick with despair, and——” - -She sighed wearily. “Perhaps,” she went on, “if you knew all I have -borne, you would not wonder at my rash, mad act.” - -“Tell me your story, Mrs. Joyce,” he said, gently. “It may relieve your -overcharged heart, and, anyhow, I will be your friend, as far as I can.” - -She sighed again. This time there was a note of relief, rather than -weariness, in the sigh. - -“My father was a well-to-do farmer,” she began, “in North Hants. I was -the only child, and I fear I was spoiled. I received the best education -possible, and loved my studies for their own sake, for culture, in all -its forms, had a strong attraction for me. I had been engaged to a young -yeoman farmer for nearly a year. I had known him all my life, and we had -been sweethearts even as children. Then there came suddenly into my life -that man Joyce, for whom I sacrificed everything. God only knows how he -contrived to exercise such an awful fascination over me as to make me -leave everyone, everything, and marry him.” - -For a moment she paused, and shuddered. Her voice, when she spoke, again, -was hollow, and full of tears. - -“I killed my father by eloping on the very eve of my arranged marriage -with Ronald Ferris. Ronald left the country as soon as he could wind up -his affairs. And I—well, here in this mighty Babylon, I have ever since -been reaping some of the sorrow I had sown. Not a penny of my father’s -money ever reached me, and that brute Joyce only married me for what he -expected to get with me. He has done his best to make earth a hell for -me, and I, in my mad blindness, last night, almost exchanged earth’s -fleeting hell for God’s eternal hell.” - -A look of shame filled her eyes as she lifted them to Hammond. - -“What you reminded me of just now, Mr. Hammond, I, deep down in my soul, -know only too well—that death does not end all. My father was a true -Christian, and a lay preacher. I have travelled with him hundreds of -times to his preaching appointments, playing the harmonium and singing -solos for him in his services. More than once the sense of God’s claim -upon me was so great as almost to compel my yielding my heart and life. -Would to God I had! But my pride, my ambitions, strangled my good -desires, and, as I said just now, I broke my father’s heart. I killed -him, and ruined all my own life, though I have no pity for myself. Then -London life, my husband’s brutality, my own misery, all helped to drive -even the memory of God from my mind.” - -“Yet,” broke in Hammond, “the Christian religion teaches that sorrow and -suffering ought to drive the possessor of the faith nearer to God.” - -There was a hint of apology in his tones as he went on: - -“Don’t misunderstand me, Mrs. Joyce; I only speak from hearsay. I have -heard parsons preach it, but I know nothing experimentally about these -things myself.” - -She smiled in a slow, sad way, and, catching her breath in a kind of -quick sob, said: “Neither have I ever known anything experimentally of -these truths. I drifted into the outward form of a correct, religious, -life. I learned to like the brightness of our chapel services, the fun of -choir practice, the merry company, the adulation heaped upon me for my -solo-singing. Then there were the tea-meetings, the service of song, and -a multitude of other mild excitements which went to brighten the monotony -of a rural existence. But of God, of Christ, of the Divine life, I fear I -knew nothing.” - -Hammond smiled inwardly as he listened to this strange confession. The -phraseology was new to him. - -“It is the shibboleth of Nonconformity, I suppose,” he told himself. “And -I suppose each section of religious society has its own outward form of -things in which it trusts, thinking, caring, nothing for the great Divine -verities that should be the true religious life.” - -He did not utter his thoughts aloud, but asked with some apparent -irrelevance, “Where is your husband, Mrs. Joyce?” - -“Off on one of his drinking bouts, or maybe, locked up for drunkenness; I -cannot say.” - -Her lifted eyes were full of beseeching, as she went on, “You will keep -secret, Mr. Hammond, all this wild, mad episode of my life. If only I -could know that the sad, mad, bad story was locked up between God and -you, your kind landlady and myself, I think I could go back and face my -misery better.” - -“Do not fear, Mrs. Joyce,” he replied quickly. “The affair shall be as -though it had never been. I can answer for Mrs. Belcher, my landlady; and -for myself I give you my word, and——” - -“God reward you, sir!” she sobbed. “Already you have given me clearer -views of Him than any minister or any sermon ever did.” - -A few moments later Mrs. Joyce rose to leave. He pressed three sovereigns -into her hand, and in spite of her tearful protestations made her take -the money. - -“If you are ever in desperate need, come to me, or write me, Mrs. Joyce, -and I will help you, if I can. Meanwhile, be assured that the little I -have done for you I would have done for any stranger, for, after all, the -human race is linked by a strange, a mighty family tie. Good-bye.” - -She wrung the hand he gave her, then with a sudden, impulsive movement -she lifted it sharply to her lips and kissed it with a tearful -passionateness. - -The next moment she was gone. His hand was wet with her tears. - -“Poor soul!” he muttered. - -Passing across the room to the window, he glanced out. She was moving -down the street. Her handkerchief was pressed to her eyes. - -“How strange,” he murmured, as he turned from the window, “are -these chance encounters in life! Like ships at sea, we sight, hail, -exchange some kind of greeting, then pass on. Do we, after all, I -wonder, unconsciously influence each other in these apparently trivial -life-encounters? If so, how? Take this episode now, for instance. Will my -encounter with that poor soul have any effect on my life, or on hers? If -so, what?” - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -LILY WORK. - - -The room we now enter is a large one. It is close under the roof of a -house in Finsbury. The man there at work pauses for a moment. - -The room is a workshop. The man is a Jew—but what a Jew! He might have -posed to an artist as a model, a type of the proudest Jewish monarch over -Israel. Face, form, stature—not even Saul or David or Solomon could have -excelled him. - -The room held the finished workmanship of his hands for the three past -years. And now, as he paused in his labour—a labour of love—for a moment, -and drew his tall form erect, and lifted his face to the window above -him, a light that was almost holy filled his eyes. - -“God of our fathers,” he murmured, “God of the Holy Tent and of the -Temple, instruct me; teach my fingers to do this great work.” - -He let his hands fall with an almost sacred touch upon the chapiter he -had been chasing. He wist not that his face shone with an unearthly -light, as for a moment his lips moved in prayer. Then quietly reaching a -thick old book from a shelf, he opened it at one of its earlier pages, -and read aloud. - -“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name -Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: and I -have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, -and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning -works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting -of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all kinds -of workmanship. And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son -of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan: and in the hearts of all that are -wise-hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have -commanded thee: the tabernacle of the congregation, and the ark of the -testimony, and the mercy-seat that is thereupon, and all the furniture of -the tabernacle.” - -The light—it was now almost a fire—deepened in his eyes. A rare, a rich, -cadence filled his voice as he read the holy words. His fingers moved to -the middle of the book. It easily opened at a certain place, as though it -had been often used at that page. Again he read aloud: - -“And the chapiters that were upon, the top of the pillars were of lily -work, ... and the chapiters upon the two pillars had pomegranates also -above, ... and the pomegranates were two hundred, in rows round about -upon the other chapiter, ... and he set up the pillars in the porch of -the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof -Jachin (”He shall establish“); and he set up the left pillar, and called -the name thereof Boaz (”In it is strength“). And on the top of the -pillars was lily work: so was the work of the pillars finished.” - -With a reverent touch the man closed the book, replaced it on the shelf, -then, lifting his eyes again to where the cold, clear light streamed down -through the great skylight in the ceiling, he murmured: - -“How long, O Lord, shall Thy people be cast off and trodden down, and -their land, Thy land, be held by the accursed races?” - -For a moment a look of pain swept into his face. Then, as he became -conscious of the touch of his lowered hand upon the chapiter, his eyes -travelled downwards to the exquisite “lily work,” and the light of a new -hope swept the pain off his face. - -“The very fact that the time has come,” he murmured, “for us to be -preparing for the next temple, is a token from Jehovah that the day of -Messiah draweth nigh.” - -His eyes lingered a moment on the rare and beautiful workmanship, then -he took up a chasing tool and continued his toil; yet, while he worked -he kept up a running recitative of Ezekiel’s description of the great -temple—for he knew by heart all the chapters of that prophet. - -As he presently repeated the words: “And the Prince in the midst of them, -when they go in, shall go in; and when they go forth, shall go forth,” he -lifted his eyes with a deep holy rapture shining in all his face. - -He closed his recitative with a ringing note of triumph in his voice, as -he cried, “It shall be round about eighteen thousand cubits: and the name -of the city from that day shall be Jehovah-Chammah”—“The Lord is there.” - -There was a moment of absolute silence. The graver was still, the hand -that held it might have been stone, so rigid did it become. The lips of -Abraham Cohen moved, but no other sound came from him save the words -“Jehovah was there,” and he prayed aloud. - -In the midst of his rapt devotion the door of the workroom opened. The -slight sound aroused the dreamer. He turned his face in the direction of -the door, and his eyes flashed with pleasure. - -“Ah, Zillah!” he cried in greeting. The girl he addressed closed the -door, thus shutting out the odour of frying fish. She crossed the floor -quickly, with a certain eagerness, and came towards him with a rare -grace. She was singularly beautiful, of an Eastern style of beauty. Her -complexion was of the Spanish olive tone, and her melting eyes were of -that same Spanish type. Her hair—a wondrous crown of it—was blue-black. -She had a certain plumpness of form that seemed to add rather than take -from her general beauty. She was sister to his wife. - -“Supper will be ready in five minutes, Abraham,” she began. “Will you be -ready for it?” - -He smiled down into her great black eyes. He was never very keen on his -meals. He ate to live only; he did not live to eat. She knew that, and -had long since learned that his labour of love was as meat and drink to -him. Her eyes glided past him and rested on his work. - -“It is very beautiful, Abraham!” she cried. There was reverence as well -as rapture and admiration in her voice and glance. - -“It cannot be too beautiful, Zillah,” he returned. - -Her eyes were on his work. His were on her face. He read in it the -rapturous admiration of his workmanship. - -“When will the Messiah come?” she sighed. - -“Soon, I believe!” he returned. “Jehovah rested in His creative work -after six days’ labour. A thousand years with Him are as one day. May it -not well be, then, that as there have passed nearly six thousand years -(each thousand years, representing one day) that He will presently rest -in His finished work for His people, through the coming of the Messiah, -as He did at the creation?” - -He laid his tool aside, and turned to the beautiful girl, as he continued: - -“Besides, do not our sacred books say that when three springs have been -discovered on Mount Zion, Messiah will come? Two springs have lately -been discovered by the excavators in Jerusalem, and our people out there -excitedly watch the work of these men, expecting soon the discovery of -the third spring.” - -Her eager, parted lips told how she hung upon his speech. He smiled down -gratefully into her great black lustrous eyes, though a sigh escaped him -as he said: - -“Ah! I wish Leah would only show a little of the interest in all this, -that you do, Zillah!” - -“You must not blame Leah too much, Abraham,” the girl answered quickly. -“She has her children, you know. Mother always said that if ever Leah had -babies, that there would be nothing else in the world for her except the -babies. Besides, Abraham, no two of us are constituted alike, and Leah is -what the Gentiles about here call happy-go-lucky. But, Abraham, tell me -more of what you think of Messiah’s coming. Leah’s five minutes will be -sure to run to a quarter of an hour.” - -“I do think Messiah is coming soon,” cried the young fellow excitedly. -“Who knows? Perhaps when the Passover comes again, and we set His chair, -and open the door for Him to enter, that He will suddenly come. Did I -tell you, Zillah, about the date discovery at Safed, in Palestine?” - -“No, what is it?” The girl’s face glowed with a strange earnestness, her -voice rang with it. - -“Safed,” he went on, quickly, “is a little town to the north-west of -Galilee. Our Rabbi there has discovered from our sacred books, that -Messiah’s coming, and the overthrow of our enemies, will be in the -year five thousand six hundred and sixty-six—nineteen hundred and six -according to the Gentile reckoning. Our Father Moses, and all the -children of Israel sang, when Jehovah delivered them from the Red -Sea:—‘Yea, by the force of Thy swelling waves hast Thou demolished those -who arose against Thee. Thou didst discharge Thy wrath, it devoured -them up like stubble.’ Our Rabbis—and even the Christian Gentile -teachers—agree that the deliverance of our race from Pharaoh, and the -destruction of his hosts, picture our race’s future as well as its past. -And the numerical value of ‘Thou shalt overthrow’ (part of those two -song-stanzas I have just repeated) gives the date I have mentioned as the -time of our deliverance from all our troubles, when Messiah shall come.” - -There was a sudden clatter of little feet outside at that moment, and a -boy and a girl burst into the room. - -“What do you think, father?” cried the boy, with the excited -impulsiveness of a child bursting with news. “A boy—he’s a Gentile, of -course—whom I know says that Messiah has come, that the cursed Nazarene -was He, and that——” - -“We will go to supper, Reuben, and you and I will talk about that another -time.” Cohen spoke quietly to his boy. He had his own reasons for -checking the subject at that time. - -His aunt caught the boy’s hand, and danced with him out of the room. -Rachel, the little girl, a wondrous miniature of Zillah, clung to her -father, and the whole family trooped off to wash their hands before the -meal. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -AN INTERESTING TALK. - - -“The Courier” was now an established fact. As a newspaper it was as much -a revelation to the journalists as to the general public. London had -taken to it from the first moment of its issue. The provinces, instead -of following their usual course of waiting to see what London did, took -their own initiative, and adopted the new paper at once. Every instinct -about the ideal paper, felt and nursed during the waiting years by Tom -Hammond, had been true instinct. He had always felt them to be true; now -he realized the fact. He was a proud man, a happy man. - -One curious feature of the new journal had attracted much attention, -even before the publication of the first issue. In his “Foreword,” as he -had termed it, in a full page announcement that appeared in three of the -leading London dailies, Tom Hammond had said: - -“An important feature of the ‘Courier’ will be the item or items (as the -case may be) which will be found each day under the heading, ‘From the -Prophet’s Chamber.’ A greater man than the editor of ‘The Courier’ once -said, ‘Every editor of a newspaper ought to have a strain of the seer in -his composition. He ought to have the gift of prophecy up to a certain -point. He ought to be so thoroughly conversant with the history of his -own and every other nation that when history is on the point of repeating -itself—as it has a habit of doing,—he may not be caught altogether -napping.’ It is the unexpected that happens, we say. - -“True, but there are many of the so-called happenings of the unexpected -that to the spirit of the seer will have been expected and more than -half-prophesied. - -“Now, while we propose that the whole tone of ‘The Courier’ shall show -the spirit of the seer in a measure, we shall endeavour to make the -particular column to which we are now alluding essentially new. In it -we shall deal with every class of subject likely to prove mentally -arrestive to our readers, and shall make it prophetic up to the limits -of our capacities as man, citizen and editor. How far the possession of -the quality of the seer will be found in us we must leave the future—and -our readers—to decide. But we certainly anticipate that ‘The Prophet’s -Chamber’ column will be one of the most popular features of what we shall -aim to make the most popular paper of the day.” - -Tom Hammond was no believer in luck. He had left nothing to chance in the -production of his paper. There was not a department left to subordinates -which he did not personally assure himself was being carried out on the -best, the safest, lines. For weeks he literally lived on the spot where -his great paper was to be produced, taking his meals and sleeping at an -hotel close by the huge building that housed “The Courier.” - -He saw very little of Sir Archibald Carlyon during these weeks, and -nothing at all of George, or the fair American, Madge Finisterre. George -was in Scotland; Madge on the Continent. - -His thoughts often turned to the American girl, and his eye brightened -and his pulse quickened whenever he heard of her from Sir Archibald. - -Once he had been permitted by Sir Archibald to read a gossipy letter sent -by her to the old baronet. He laughed over a quotation in that letter. - -“I am not like the Chicago girl,” she wrote, “of whom our Will Carleton -writes, who, telling all about her tour in ‘Urop,’ says, - - “Old Scotland? Yes, all in our power, - We did there to be through; - We stopped in Glasgow one whole hour, - Then straight to ‘Edinborough.’ - At Abbotsford we made a stay - Of half-an-hour precisely. - (The ruins all along the way - Were ruined very nicely.) - - “We ‘did’ a mountain in the rain, - And left the others undone, - Then took the ‘Flying Scotchman’ train, - And came by night to London. - Long tunnels somewhere on the line - Made sound and darkness deeper; - No; English scenery is not fine - Viewed from a Pullman sleeper. - - “Oh, Paris! Paris! Paris! ’Tis - No wonder, dear, that you go - So far into ecstasies - About that Victor Hugo! - He paints the city, high and low, - With faithful pen and ready. - (I think, my dear, I ought to know, - We drove there two hours steady.”) - -“I feel,” Madge had written, “that one wants a life-time to ‘do’ the -Continent.” - -Tom Hammond’s thoughts often flew to the gay girl. This morning, having -seen a review of Carleton’s latest book of ballads, he had been reminded -of her, and he laid down his pen a moment, as he gave himself up to a -little reverie about her. An announcement aroused him. - -“Miss Finisterre and Mr. Carlyon, sir.” - -He smiled to himself. “Talk of angels, etc.,” he mused. - -The next moment he was greeting his callers. Madge Finisterre looked, in -Tom Hammond’s eyes, more radiant now than ever. - -“Fancy, Mr. Hammond,” she laughed, when the greetings were over, “George -and I met at Dover! He had come south to see a friend off from Dover, and -was on the pier when I landed from the Calais boat. We’ve been down to -that dear old country house, but I wanted to do some shopping, and to see -how you looked as editor-in-chief and general boss of the biggest daily -paper in the world.” - -Tom Hammond’s eyes flashed with a pleased light at her confession, which -implied that she had thought of him, even as he had thought of her. He -noted, too, how an extra shade of colour warmed the clear skin of her -cheeks as she made her confession. - -“Because,” she went on, “all the world declares that ‘The Courier’ is the -premier paper of the world, and everyone who is anyone—in the know of -things, I mean—knows that Mr. Tom Hammond is ‘The Courier.’” - -The talk, for a few minutes, was “shop.” - -“You don’t go in for a column of comic,” Madge presently said. “If you -did, I could give you an item, we, George and I, heard in the train as we -ran up to town. There were two of your English parsons in our carriage, -talking in that high-faluting note that always reminds me of your -high-pitched church service,—‘dearly-beloved-brethren’ note. - -“Well, the two parsons were telling yarns one against the -other—chestnuts were cheap, I assure you,—and one of them told a story -he tacked on to General Booth—the last time I heard it, it was told of -Spurgeon. He said that the General was going down Whitechapel, and, -seeing the people pouring into a show, and wondering what there was so -powerfully attractive to the masses in these shows, he determined to go -into this particular one. It was advertised as a ‘Museum of Biblical -Curiosities.’ Just as he got in, the showman was exhibiting a very rusty -old sword, and saying, - -“‘Now, yere’s a werry hinterestin’ hobject. This is the sword wot Balaam -’it ’is hass wiv, ’cos ’ee wouldn’t go.’ Booth speaks up, and says, - -“‘Hold hard there, my friend; you’re getting a little mixed. Balaam -hadn’t got a sword. He said, “Would that I had a sword.”’ - -“‘That’s all right, guv’nor,’ cried the showman; ‘this is the sword ’ee -wished ’ee ’ad.’” - -The girl’s mimicry of the coster-showman’s speech was inimitable, and the -two men laughed as much at her telling as at the tale itself. - -George Carlyon got up from his seat, saying, “But I say, you two, do you -mind if I leave you to amuse each other for an hour? I want, very much, -to run down to the club. I’ll come back for you, Madge, or meet you -somewhere.” - -“Bless the boy!” she laughed. “Do you think I was reared in an incubator, -or in your Mayfair? Haven’t you learned that, given a Yankee girl’s got -dollars under her boots to wheel on, it ain’t much fuss for her to skate -through this old country of yours, nor yet through Europe, come to that, -even though she has no more languages under her tongue than good plain -Duchess county American. I told the ‘boys’ that before I left home.” - -George Carlyon laughed, as, accepting his release, he nodded to the pair -and left the room. - -It was a strangely new experience to Tom Hammond, to be left alone with a -beautiful and charming woman like Madge Finisterre. - -The picture she made, as she moved round the room looking at the framed -paintings, all gifts from his artist friends, came to him as a kind of -revelation. When he had met her that day in the Embankment hotel, he -had been charmed with her beauty and her frank, open, unconventionality -of manner. He had thought of her many times since—only that very day, a -moment before her arrival,—thought of her as men think of a picture or a -poem which has given them delight. But now he found her appealing to him. - -She was a woman, a beautiful, attractive woman. She suggested sudden -thoughts of how a woman, loved, and returning that love, might affect his -life, his happiness. - -Her physical grace and beauty, the exquisite fit of her costume, the -perfect harmony of it—all this struck him now. But the woman in her -appealed strongest to him. - -“Awfully good, this sketch of street arabs!” she turned to say, as she -stood before a clever bit of black-and-white drawing. - -An end of a lace scarf she was wearing caught in a nail in the wall. He -sprang forward to release the scarf. It was not readily done, for his -fingers became infected with a strange nervousness. Once their hands met, -their fingers almost interlocked. A curious little thrill went through -him. He lifted his eyes involuntarily, and met her glance. A warm colour -shot swiftly into her face. And he was conscious at the same moment that -his own cheeks burned. - -“I guess I’ll sit down before I do any more mischief,” she laughed. - -Woman-like, she was quicker to get at ease than he was. - -“Do you know, Mr. Hammond,” she went on, as she seated herself in a -revolving armchair, “I just wanted very much to see how you were fixed up -here, and how you looked now that you are a big man.” - -He made a deprecatory little gesture. - -“Oh, but you are a really great man,” she went on. “I have heard some big -people talk of you, and say——” - -She leaned back, and smiled merrily at him, as she went on, - -“Well, I guess if there’s only a shadow of truth in the old saying, then -your ears must often have burned.” - -Madge Finisterre gave the chair in which she was sitting a half twist. - -“Why don’t you British people go in for rockers?” she asked. “I simply -can’t enjoy your English homes to the full, for want of a good rocker, -wherever I go.” - -An indiarubber bulb lay close to his hand. He pressed it without her -noting the movement. A clerk suddenly appeared. Hammond looked across at -Madge, with an “Excuse me, Miss Finisterre, one moment.” - -He drew a sheet of notepaper towards him. The paper was headed with “The -Courier” title and address. - -“Send me, at once, unpacked and ready for immediate use, the best -American drawing-room rocking-chair you have in stock. Send invoice, cash -will follow,” etc. - -That was what he wrote. He enclosed it in an envelope, then on a separate -slip of paper he wrote:— - -“Take a cab, there and back, to Wallis’s, Holborn Circus. See how smart -you can be; bring the chair, ordered, back with you.” - -From his purse he took a four-shilling piece, and gave the young fellow -the note, the slip of instructions, and the coin. - -As the attendant left the room, he turned again to Madge, who, utterly -unsuspicious of the errand on which he had sent his employee, was amusing -herself with a copy of “Punch.” She looked up from the paper as the door -closed. - -“I like ‘The Courier’ immensely, Mr. Hammond,” she cried. There was a -rare warmth of admiration in her tone. - -“Thank you, Miss Finisterre!” His eyes said more than his words, “what do -you specially like in it?” he asked; “or is your liking of a more general -character?” - -“I do like it from a general standpoint,” she replied; “I think it the -best paper in the world. But especially do I like your own particular -column, ‘From a Prophet’s Chamber.’ But, Mr. Hammond, about the Jew—you -are going in strong for him, aren’t you?” - -“From the ordinary newspaper point, yes,” he said. “I cannot quite -recall how my mind was first switched on to the subject, but I do know -this—that the more I study the past history of the race, and the future -predictions concerning it, the more amazed I am, how, past, present, and -future, the Jews, as a nation, are interwoven with everything political, -musical, artistic—everything, in fact. And I wonder, equally, that we -journalists, as a whole—I speak, of course, as far as I know my kinsmen -in letters—should have thought and written so little about them. - -“Take their ubiquitousness, Miss Finisterre,” went on Hammond. “There -does not appear to have been an empire in the past that has not had its -colony of Jews. By which I do not mean a Ghetto, simply, a herding of -sordid-living, illiterate Hebrews, but a study colony of men and women, -who, by sheer force of intellect, of brain power, have obtained and -maintained the highest positions, the greatest influence. - -“Why, in China, even, isolated, conservative China, before Christ was -born in Bethlehem, the Jews were a prosperous, ubiquitous people, -worshipping the one God, Jehovah, amidst all the foulness of Chinese -idolatries.” - -Madge Finisterre listened with rapt interest. The man before her, fired -with his subject, talked marvellously. A good listener helps to make a -good talker, and Tom Hammond talked well. - -“It is not simply that they practically hold the wealth of the world in -their hands, that they are the world’s bankers, but they are dominating -our press, our politics.” - -With glowing picture of words he poured out a flood of wondrous fact and -illustration, winding up presently with: - -“Then you cannot kill the Jew, you cannot wipe him out. Persecution has -had the effect of stunting his growth, so that the average Britisher is -several inches taller than the average Jew. But the life of the Hebrew -is indestructible. Sometimes of late I have asked myself this question, -as I have reviewed the history of the dealings of so-called Christianity -with the Semitic race—Has Christianity been afraid of the Jews, or why -has she sought to stamp them out?” - -The pair had been so engrossed with their talk that they had lost all -count of time. A half-hour had slipped by since Tom Hammond had sent his -messenger to Wallis’s. The young fellow suddenly appeared at the door. - -“Got it, Charlie?” - -Without waiting for a reply to his question, the editor bounded from his -seat and passed outside. Thirty seconds later the door opened again, and -he appeared, bearing a splendid rocker in his arms. - -Before she fully realized the wonder of the whole thing, Madge found -herself seated in the rocking-chair. Swaying backwards and forwards, and -blushing and smiling, she cried: - -“You are a wonderful man, Mr. Hammond!” - -“You said you could never fully enjoy our English houses for want of a -rocker. Now, however ‘angelic’ your visits to this room may be, you shall -have one inducement to slip in—a rocker.” - -She was beginning her thanks again, when he interrupted with: - -“But, excuse me, Miss Finisterre, what about some tea? Shall we go out -and get some, or would you prefer that I should order it in here?” - -“Oh, here, by all means! I can have tea at a restaurant every day of -my life, but with a real London lion—a real live editor—and in his own -special den. Why, it may never fall to my lot again. Oh, here, by all -means!” she cried, excitedly. - -He squeezed that rubber bulb again. To the lad Charlie, who appeared, he -gave a written order to a neighbouring restaurant. Twenty minutes later -the tea was in the room. - -Madge officiated with the teapot. Hammond watched her every movement. -A truly pretty, graceful girl never looks handsomer to a man than when -presiding at a tea-table. Tom Hammond thought Madge had never looked more -charming. The meal was a very enjoyable one, and as she poured out his -second cup he paid her a pretty compliment, adding: - -“To see you thus, Miss Finisterre, makes one think what fools men are not -to——” - -He paused abruptly. She flashed a quick glance of enquiry at him. - -“Not to what, Mr. Hammond?” - -“I wonder,” he replied, “if I ought to say what I left unsaid?” - -“Why not?” she asked. - -“I don’t know why I should not,” he laughed. “I was going to say that, to -have a bright, beautiful, graceful woman like Madge Finisterre pouring -out tea for him, makes a man think what a fool he is not to marry.” - -His tone and glance were alike full of meaning. She could not mistake -him. Her colour heightened visibly. Her eyes drooped before his ardent -gaze. The situation became tense and full of portent. - -The opening of the door at that instant changed everything. George -Carlyon had returned. At the same moment a wire was brought to Hammond, -together with a sheaf of letters—the afternoon mail. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -“COMING.” - - -George Carlyon’s entrance, the arrival of the afternoon mail, and the -telegram gave Madge Finisterre an opportunity to escape. George Carlyon -was anxious to leave, and Madge rose at once to accompany him. - -Tom Hammond did not press them to stay, for he, too, felt awkward. The -friends shook hands. The eyes of Madge and Hammond met for one instant. -Each face flushed under the power of the other’s glance. - -When the door had closed upon them, Tom went back to his old place by the -table, his eyes involuntarily sweeping the whole apartment. He smiled as -he suddenly realized how empty the room now seemed. His glance rested -upon the tea-tray, and he rang for the lad Charlie. - -“Clear all this away, Charlie, please,” he began. Then with a smile he -said, “You will find a capital cup of tea in that pot.” - -The boy grinned. At his first glance at the tray he had mentally decided -that he would be able to have a rare feast. A couple of minutes, and the -boy had gone. - -Tom Hammond gathered up his mail, and was about to drop into his ordinary -seat, when he remembered the rocker. With a smile at Madge’s occupancy of -the chair, he dropped into it. - -For fully five minutes he sat still thinking, reviewing all the -circumstances of the peculiar situation upon which the unexpected coming -of George Carlyon had broken. He asked himself whether he was really in -love with the fair Madge, and whether he would have proposed to her if -her cousin had not so unexpectedly turned up? He made no definite reply -to his own questioning, but turned to his mail. - -The telegram he had opened at once on its receipt. He turned now to the -letters. He had opened all but two. The last one was addressed in a -woman’s hand-writing. Breaking the envelope, he took out the letter, and -turned first to the signature on the fourth page. - -“Millicent Joyce,” he read. “Millicent Joyce?” he repeated. Unconsciously -he had laid his emphasis on the “Millicent,” and he forgot the “Joyce.” - -But suddenly it came to him that the letter was from Mrs. Joyce, the -woman whom he had helped to save from drowning on the night of that -memorable day when the great chance of his life had come to him. - -“Poor soul!” he muttered. “I wonder what she has written about?” The next -instant he was reading the letter. - -Tom Hammond cast his eyes over the letter which Mrs. Joyce had sent him, -and which ran thus: - - “Dear Sir, - - “I gave you my word that if ever I was in special trouble or - need I would write, or come to you for help. - - “I did not promise you, however, that if any great joy or - blessing should come to me, that I would let you know. I don’t - think I believed any joy could ever possibly come into my life - again. But joy and wondrous gladness have come into my life, - and in an altogether unexpected way. - - “You will remember how I said to you in parting, that morning, - that your strong, cheery words had given me a clearer view of - God than any sermon I had ever listened to. That impression - deepened rather than diminished when I got home. My husband, - I heard, had been sent to Wandsworth Prison for a month, for - assaulting the police when drunk. - - “And in this month of quiet from his brutalities, the great joy - of my life came to me. I began to attend religious services - from the very first night after my return home. I went to - church, chapel, mission hall, and Salvation Army. - - “One night I went to the hall of the Mission for Railway Men. A - lady was speaking that night, and God found me, and saved me. - All that I had ever heard from my dear father’s lips, when he - preached about conversion, came back to me, and that night I - passed from death to life. - - “The subject of the address was ‘The Coming of the Lord.’ I - listened in amazement as the lady speaker declared that, for - this age, God evidently meant that this truth of the near - coming of Christ should have almost, if not quite, the most - prominent place in all public preaching. - - “I was startled to hear her say that there were nearly three - hundred direct references to the second coming of Christ in the - Gospels and Epistles, and that there were thus more than double - the number of references to that subject than even to that of - salvation through the blood of the Atonement. - - “With her Bible in her hand, she turned readily to a score of - passages as illustrations of her statement, and all through her - address she never made a statement without backing it up by - Scripture. One thing she said laid a tremendous grip upon me, - and led me to an immediate decision for Christ: she said, ‘How - often is the possibility of sudden death advanced by a preacher - as an incentive to unsaved souls to yield to God! - - “‘But how poor an argument is that compared with the near - approach of Christ! Sudden death might come to one person in - a congregation before twenty-four hours, but in a sense, that - would touch that one person only. But if Christ came to take up - His people from the earth—the dead in Christ from their graves, - the living from their occupations, etc.,—this would affect - every unsaved soul in every part of the country, of the world, - even.’” - -Tom Hammond paused in his reading. - -“What on earth can she mean?” he murmured, under his breath. Then he went -on from the letter: - - “I gave myself up to God there and then, Mr. Hammond, and am - seeking now to live so that, should Christ come, even before I - finish this letter, I may be ready to be caught up to meet Him - in the air.” - -Hammond paused again. - -“What can the woman mean?” he murmured again. With the letter held in -his hand, his eyes became fixed upon space, his mind was searching for -something that he had recently heard or read bearing on this strange -topic. The clue seemed almost within grasp, yet for awhile he could not -recall it. - -Suddenly it came to him. A volume of poems had been sent to him for -review, amid the excitement of the second day’s issue of “The Courier.” -He had glanced rapidly through the book, had written a brief line for his -paper, acknowledging the receipt of the book, and promising to refer to -it fully at some later date. - -“That book,” he mused, “had something in it about—about——” - -He got up from the rocker, took his place at his table, then wheeled -about slowly in his revolving chair, and began searching his book-case. -In an instant his keen eye picked out the volume he sought. He wheeled -round again to his table, the book in his hand. - -He turned a moment to the title-page. “Ezekiel and Other Poems,” he read. -“By B. M.” - -“B. M.,” he mused, “Whom have I heard writes under those initials? Ah! I -remember! Mrs. Miller.—Barbara Miller.” - -He ran the gilt-edged leaves rapidly through his practised fingers, his -quick eye catching enough of the running pages to satisfy him. Suddenly -he paused in his search. His eye had lit upon what he sought, and he -began to read: - - “COMING.” - - “At even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the - morning.” - - “It may be in the evening, - When the work of the day is done, - And you have time to sit in the twilight - And watch the sinking sun, - While the long, bright day dies slowly - Over the sea, - And the hour grows quiet and holy - With thoughts of Me; - While you hear the village children - Passing along the street, - Among those thronging footsteps - May come the sound of My feet. - - “Therefore I tell you, ‘Watch,’ - By the light of the evening star, - When the room is growing dusky - As the clouds afar; - Let the door be on the latch - In your home, - For it may be through the gloaming - I will come.” - -He paused in his reading for a moment, for, like a voice near by, the -drone of that blind beggar’s reading came to him, as he had heard it that -day on the embankment. - -“This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go.” - -“I remember,” he mused, “how that sentence arrested me. My mind was -utterly pre-occupied a moment before, but that wondrous sentence pierced -my pre-occupation.” - -His eyes dropped to the poem again, and he read on:— - - “It may be when midnight - Is heavy on the land, - And the black waves lying dumbly - Along the sand; - When the moonless night draws close, - And the lights are out in the house; - When the fires burn low and red, - And the watch is ticking loudly - Beside the bed. - Though you sleep, tired out, on your couch, - Still your heart must wake and watch - In the dark room; - For it may be that at midnight - I will come.” - -He read rapidly, but more eagerly interested each moment. The next -section he scarcely paused upon, but the fourth he lingered over, and -then read it the second time: - - “It may be in the morning, - When the sun is bright and strong, - And the dew is glittering sharply - Over the little lawn; - When the waves are laughing loudly - Along the shore, - And the little birds sing sweetly - About the door; - With the long day’s work before you, - You rise up with the sun, - And the neighbours come in to talk a little - Of all that must be done: - But remember that I may be the next - To come in at the door, - To call you from your busy work - For evermore. - As you work, your heart must watch, - For the door is on the latch - In your room, - And it may be in the morning - I will come.” - -He read on with a strange, breathless interest the next two pages of -poem, then, with a sudden sense of hush upon him, he went carefully over -the concluding lines: - - “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.’” - -The face of Tom Hammond, as he laid down the book, was full of a strange, -new perplexity. “Strange, very!” he muttered. “Do you know Joyce, Mr. -Simpson?” Hammond asked a reporter. “He used to be on the staff of the——” - -“‘Daily Tatler,’” cried the man. “Knew him well years ago, sir. Old -school-fellows, in fact. Got wrong with the drink, sir. Gone to the -dogs, and——” - -“Have you seen or heard anything of him this last month, Mr. Simpson?” - -“Yes, sir. He’s grown worse than ever. Magistrate at Bow Street, -committing him for three days, said fellow ought to be put in Broadmoor. -Pity his poor wife, sir. Perfect lady, sir.” - -“You know Mrs. Joyce, then?” Hammond queried. - -The reporter sighed, “Rather, sir! Wished a thousand times I could have -had her for a wife, and he’d had mine. I should have had a happier life. -And he——” - -The man laughed grimly. “Well, he’d have had a tartar!” - -Hammond had heard something about the shrewish wife Simpson had -unfortunately married. But he had learned all he wanted to know, so -dismissed the poor, ill-married fellow. - -“I think I must call upon Mrs. Joyce, and learn more about this strange -matter of the coming Christ,” he told himself. - -He copied the address from the head of the letter into his pocket-book, -then turned to the last letter of his mail. - -This proved to be a comparatively short letter, but, to Hammond, a -deeply-interesting one. It was signed “Abraham Cohen,” and the writer -explained that he was a Jew, who had taken the “Courier” from the very -first number, and had not only become profoundly interested in the recent -utterances of the editor in the “Prophet’s Chamber” column, but he had, -for some days, been impressed with the desire to write to the “Prophet.” - - “Will you pardon me, sir,” the letter went on, “if I say that - it would be to your immense advantage, now that your mind has - become aroused to the facts and history of our race, if you - would get in touch with some really well-read, intelligent - Jew who knows our people well, knows their history, past, - present, and future, as far as the latter can be known from our - Scriptures and sacred books. Should you care to fall in with my - suggestion, I should be pleased to supply you with the names - and addresses of several good and clever men of our people. - - “Yours obediently, - - “ABRAHAM COHEN.” - -As he folded the letter slowly, Hammond told himself that there was -something in the letter that drew him towards the writer. - -“I will hunt him up, for it is evident that he is as enthusiastic over -his people’s history as he is intelligent. I will see what to-morrow -brings. Now to work.” - -He put Cohen’s letter in his pocket, and turned to the hundred and one -editorial claims upon his time. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -REVERIE. - - -In spite of the time of the year, the evening was almost as warm as -one in June. Madge Finisterre was on one of the wide hotel balconies -overlooking the Embankment. She had dined with her cousin, George -Carlyon, but instead of going out of town that evening with him—he had -pressed her strongly to go,—she had elected to spend a quiet evening -alone. - -London’s roar, subdued a little, it is true, at that hour, rose all -around her where she sat. The cup of coffee she had brought to her, -cooled where it stood upon the little table at her elbow. She had -forgotten it. - -Her mind was engrossed with the memory of the latter part—the interrupted -part—of that interview with Tom Hammond that afternoon. - -“What would have happened if George Carlyon had not turned up at that -moment?” she mused,—“if we had been left alone and undisturbed another -five minutes?” - -Her cheeks burned as she whispered softly to herself: - -“I believe Tom Hammond would have proposed to me. If he had, what should -I have replied?” - -A far-away look crept into her eyes. She was back again in the little -town where she had been “reared,” as she herself would have said. We -have many villages in England larger, more populous, more busy, than her -“town,” but, then, the people of her land talk “big.” - -Before her mind’s eye there rose the picture of her father’s store, a -huge, rambling concern built of wood, with a frontage of a hundred feet, -and a colonnade of turned wooden pillars that supported a verandah that -ran the whole length. - -Every item of the interior of the store came vividly before her mind, -the very odour of the place—a curious blend of groceries, drapery, rope, -oils and colours, tobacco,—seemed suddenly to fill her nostrils. And in -that instant, though she scarcely realized it, the first real touch of -nostalgia came to her. - -She saw the postal section of the store littered with men, all smoking, -most of them yarning. One after another dropped in, and, with a “Howdy, -all?” dropped upon a coil of white cotton rope, or lounged against a -counter or cask. “Dollars” and “cents” floated in speech all around, -while the men waited for the mail. It was late that night. - -A week before she had sailed for England, she had gone down to the store, -as she had gone every evening about mail-time, and, entering at the end -nearest her home, she had come upon the scene that had now so suddenly -risen before her mind’s eye. She had traversed all the narrow alley-way -between the stored-up supplies, from which the various departments were -stocked, singing as she went: - - “The world is circumbendibus, - We’re all going round; - We have a try to fly the sky, - But still we’re on the ground. - We every one go round the sun, - We’re moving night and day; - And milkmen all go round the run - Upon their Milky Way.” - - “We’re all circumbendibus, - Wherever we may be. - We’re all circumbendibus, - On land or on sea. - Rich or poor or middling, - Wherever we are found, - We’re all circumbendibus, - We’re all going round.” - -She had punctuated the chorus with a series of jerked steps, her high -heels striking the wooden floor in a kind of castanet accompaniment. -Every waiting man had risen to his feet as she came upon them in that -post-office section, and she had answered their rising with a military -salute. - -In the great mirror that ran from floor to ceiling of the store, she had -caught a glimpse of herself. She recalled, even now, exactly what she -was wearing that evening—a white muslin frock, a very wide sash of rich -silk—crushed strawberry colour—about her waist, the long ends of the sash -floating behind her almost to the high heels of her dainty bronze shoes. -A knot of the same-hued ribbon, narrow, of course, with streamers flying, -was fastened at her left shoulder. Her wide-brimmed hat was trimmed with -the same colour. She had known that she made a handsome picture before -she read the light of admiration in the eyes of the post-office loungers. - -“Have you heard the news, boys?” she asked. - -“Aw, guess we hev, Miss Madge.” - -It was Ulysses Fletcher who had acted as spokesman. - -In some surprise, and not altogether pleased, she had wheeled sharply -round to the lantern-jawed Ulysses and asked, - -“How did you hear the news, Ulysses? Dad didn’t tell you, I’m sure, for -he promised me I should tell you all myself.” - -“Met a coon down to the depot, an’ I guess he wur chuck full o’ it, an’ -’e ups an’ tells me.” - -“A coon told you?” she had cried in ever-increasing amazement. - -“Sartin, Miss Madge!” - -“A coon!” she had repeated. “A coon—told you—down at the depot—that—I -was—going—to Europe next week!” - -Every eye had stared in wondering astonishment at Madge Finisterre at -her announcement that she was going to Europe. Then there was a general -laugh, and one of the smartest of the “boys” had cried:— - -“I low there’s been a mistake some, Miss Madge, an’ that, too, all roun’. -Fact is, we’ve been runnin’ two separate tickets over this news business, -an’ thought it wur one an’ the same. We wur talkin’ ’bout Seth Hammond’s -herd o’ hogs as wur cut up by the Poughkeepsie express ’smarnin’.” - -She had joined in the laugh, and then in reply to the question of another -of the men, as to whether it was really true that she was going to -“Urop,” she had replied in the affirmative, adding, by way of explanation: - -“I guess you all know that my momma is British, that she belonged to what -the Britishers call, ‘the Quality’. She was the youngest sister of Sir -Archibald Carlyon, was travelling over here, out west, when she was about -my age, got fixed up in an awkward shop by half-breeds, and was rescued -by my dear old poppa. Fact, that’s how he came to be my poppa, for she -married him. Spite of her high connections in England, she was very poor, -and she loved dad. If dear momma could only face the water journey, -she’d go over with me.” - -“Air you goin’ alone, Miss?” one of the boys had asked. - -Then—how well she remembered it to-night!—she had given the answer, part -of which she had given to George Carlyon that very day: - -“Oh, I’ll git all right, boys, you can bet on that, without anyone -dandying around me. For I guess if there’s one thing the Britishers are -learning about our women, it’s this—that if a United States gel’s got -dollars under her boots to wheel around on it ain’t much fuss for her to -skate through their old country, nor yet through Europe, come to that, -even if she has no more language under her tongue than good, plain, -Duchess county American.” - -With a merry smile, for which there had been no scrambling, since it was -shed upon them all, she had passed on to where she knew she would find -her father, ringing her boot-heels, castanet fashion, as she sang lightly: - - “Mary’s gone wid a coon, - Mary’s gone wid a coon; - Dere’s heaps o’ trubble on de ole man’s min’ - Since Mary flit wid de coon.” - -How vividly it all came up before her in this hour of quiet reverie! But -her mind flitted swiftly to another scene, one that had been hanging in -the background of all her thought ever since (thinking of Tom Hammond -and the interrupted conversation,) she had been reminded of home and its -happenings. - -There had been a Donation Party for their pastor (Episcopalian Methodist) -at the house of one of the members on the very night of the store scene. -Madge had gone, of course. Balhang was wont to say that a Donation Party -simply could not be run without her. - -Sitting on that Embankment hotel balcony, with eyes fixed on the lamps, -the river, the bridge, the traffic yet seeing nothing of it all, that -Donation Party all came back to her. Things had been a bit stiff and -formal at first, as they often are at such gatherings. - -The adults sat around and talked on current topics—how much turkeys would -fetch for Thanksgiving, whether it would pay best to sell them plucked or -unplucked, what would folks do for cranberries for Thanksgiving, since -the cranberry crop had failed that year—“An’ turkey wi’out cranberry -ain’t wuth a twist o’ the tongue.” - -“An’ squash,” suggested one old man. “What’s turkey wi’out squash? I’d -most so soon hev only Boston” (i. e., pork and beans) “fur dinner as ter -go wi’out squash wi’ turkey.” - -The young folk had been “moping around” like draggled chickens on a wet -day when the barn-door is shut. Then, at this juncture, Madge had burst -upon the scene. She swam into the largest room, swirling round and round -with a kind of waltz movement, to the accompaniment of her own gay voice -as she sang: - - “I said, ‘My dear, I’m glad!’ - Said she, ‘I’m glad you’re glad!’ - Said I, ‘I’m glad you’re glad I’m glad, - It is so very, very nice; - It makes it seem worth twice the price, - So glad you’re glad I’m glad!’” - -With a gay laugh she had turned to the hostess, saying; - -“Things want hustling a bit here, Miss Julie. Everyone is as glum as a -whip-poor-will that is fixed up with the grippe.” - -In the quiet of that corner of the hotel balcony she smiled at these -remembrances of her nonsense that night. She had started the young people -playing their favourite games of “Whisper,” “Amsterdam,” etc., in two or -three of the smaller rooms; then had raced away again to the room where -the adults were sitting squarely against the wall, as grim as “brazen -images.” Dropping on to the piano stool, she struck a few soft, tender -notes, suggestive of some very gracious hymn, then suddenly broke into -song: - - “Oh, dat’s so! Oh, dat’s so! - Dar is nuffing ’neath de moon dat’ll satisfy dis coon. - Like a K—I—double S, kiss, - Since dat Cupid, wid his dart, made a keyhole in my heart - For dat M—I—double S, miss.” - -Behind a corner of the curtain the young pastor had watched and listened. -He had thought his presence unknown to her. He was mistaken. - -For three-quarters of an hour she had been the life of that room. Then, -suddenly, as she was singing at the piano, the room grew very quiet. She -was aroused by a voice just behind her ear, saying: - -“Miss Finisterre, are you going to supper with this first batch, or will -you wait the next turn?” - -Turning, she found herself face to face with the young pastor, the room -being otherwise empty. His gaze was very warm, very ardent. She had -flushed under the power of that gaze. - -She had railed him on his extra seriousness, and he had answered, - -“Don’t, Madge! you must know why I am grave and sad, to-night.” (He had -never called her Madge before.) - -“No, I don’t,” she had replied. - -“In less than a week,” he went on, “so I have heard to-night, you leave -Balhang. You are going to Europe, and will be away long months, perhaps a -year.” - -She had gazed at him in honest wonder, not fully grasping his meaning. - -“Why,” she asked, “should that make you sad?” - -He had leaned closer towards her. There was no one to see them. The heavy -door-curtain had slipped from its hook, and shut them in. Where her hand -rested on the rounded, polished arm of the piano, his larger hand had -moved, and her white fingers were clasped in his larger ones. His eyes -had sought hers, and, under the hypnotic power of the strong love in his -eyes, she had been compelled to meet his gaze. - -“I thought, dear, you must have seen how, for a long time, I had learned -to love you, Madge.” - -His clasp on her fingers had tightened. He had leaned nearer to her -still. No man’s face, save her father’s, had ever been so close to hers -before, and the contact strangely affected her. She felt the warmth of -his breath, the heat of his clean, wholesome flesh; even the scent of the -soap he had used—or was it some perfume in his clothing?—filled all her -sense of smell. - -The perfume was violet, and she remembered to-night how, for many a day, -she could not smell violets without recalling that moment, and seeing -again the strong, earnest, eager face, with the fire of a mighty love -burning in the eyes. - -To-night she heard again the yearning, pleading voice as he had cried: -“Madge, Madge, my darling! Can you ever guess how great is my love for -you? Tell me, dear, do you, can you, love me in return? Will you be my -wife? Will you come into all my life to bless it? And let me be wholly -yours to help, to bless, to strengthen, to love, to cherish you? Tell me, -darling!” - -And she had cried, almost piteously: - -“I don’t know how to answer you, pastor. It is all so sudden. I knew, of -course, that we were great friends, and I am sure I like you very much, -but—this proposal! Why, I never dreamed that you cared for me like that, -for how could I be a minister’s wife? I am such a gay, thoughtless, -foolish little thing—I——” - -There had followed more tender pleading, and she had finally said, “If -you love me, Homer, as you say you do, please do not bother me any more -now. Wait until I come back from Europe—then—then——” - -“What, Madge?” he had cried softly, eagerly. - -“If I can honestly say ‘Yes,’” she had replied, “I will and I will not -even wait for you to ask me again.” - -He had bent over her. His gaze held her fascinated. She thought he was -going to take toll of her lips before his right was confirmed. But at -that instant there had come a rush of feet, a sound of many voices. The -curtain was flung aside, just as her fingers strayed over the keys of the -instrument, and the pastor succeeded in regaining his old unseen nook. - -“I guess Miss Julie’s waitin’ fur yer, Miss Madge, ter go ter yer -supper,” bawled an old deacon of the church. - -She had swept the ivory keys with rollicking touch, and sang in gayest -style: - - “Allow me to say Ta-ta! - I bid you good-day. Ta-ta! - I wish I could stay, - But I’m going away. - Allow me to say Ta-ta!” - -Amid the uproarious laughter of everyone in the room, she had bounded -away to supper. - -Except for one moment, when she was leaving the house for home, and -he had helped her on with her cloak, the pastor had not spoken again -directly to her that evening. He had managed then to whisper, - -“God bless you, my darling! I shall pray for you, and live on the hope I -read in your eyes to-night.” - -It was all this which had risen so strangely before her mind, as -to-night, on that hotel balcony, she had begun to ask herself how much -she really cared for Tom Hammond, and what answer she would have given -him had he proposed to her that afternoon. - -“I told pastor,” she murmured, “that night, that I was not sure of -myself. I am no nearer being sure of myself now than I was then.” - -The scene with Hammond rose up before her, and she added: “I am less -sure, I think, than ever!” - -She gazed fixedly where the double line of lamps gleamed on the -near-distant bridge. For a moment she tried to compare the two lives—that -of an American Methodist pastor’s wife, with endless possibilities of -doing good, and that of the wife of a comparatively wealthy newspaper -editor-manager. - -“Should I like to marry a popular man?” she asked herself. “I read -somewhere once that popular men, like popular actors, make bad husbands, -that they cannot endure the tameness of an audience of one.” - -She laughed low, and a little amusedly, as she added, “Oh, well, Tom -Hammond has not asked me to marry him. Perhaps he never will—and—well, -‘sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.’ Pastor once preached from -that, I remember.” - -The night had grown cooler. She shivered a little as she rose and passed -into the lighted room beyond. - -Two hours later, as she laid her head upon the pillow, she murmured, “I -don’t see how I could marry the pastor! Why, I haven’t ‘got religion’ -yet. I am not ‘converted,’ as these Britishers would say!” - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -A THREAT. - - -Tom Hammond paused before the house that bore the number at the head of -Mrs. Joyce’s letter. It was in a mean street, and his soul went out in -pity towards the unfortunate woman, who, with all her refinement, was -compelled to live amid such squalid surroundings. - -“And heart-starved, too,” he mused, pityingly. “Heart-starved for the -want of love, of sympathy, of the sense of soul-union that makes life -with a married partner at all bearable.” - -“Yus, sir; Mrs. Joss lives yere. Top floor, lef’ ’and side. Yer kin go -hup!” - -A child had opened the door in response to his knock. Following the -directions given, Tom Hammond climbed the dirty stairs. On the top -landing were two doors. The one on the right was fast shut; that on the -left was ajar a few inches. His approach did not seem to have been heard. -Mrs. Joyce, the only occupant of the room, was seated at a bare deal -table, sewing briskly. - -He stretched out his hand to tap at the door, but some impulse checked -him for a moment. He had the opportunity to observe her closely, and he -did so. - -She sat facing the window; the light shone full upon her. She was dressed -in a well-worn but well-fitting black gown. Round her throat—how pure and -white the skin was!—she wore a white turnover collar, like a nurse, white -cuffs at her wrists completing the nurse idea. Her hair—she had loosened -it earlier because of a slight headache—hung in clustering waves on her -neck, and was held back behind her ears with a comb on either side. There -was a rare softness and refinement in the pale face that drooped over -her sewing. Seen as Tom Hammond saw her then, Mrs. Joyce was a really -beautiful woman. - -He gazed for a few moments at the picture, amazed at the rapidity of her -sewing movements. - -“The tragedy of Tom Hood’s ‘Song of the Shirt,’” he muttered, as he -watched the gleam of the flying needle. - - “Oh, men with sisters dear! - Oh, men with mothers and wives! - It is not linen you’re wearing out, - But human creatures’ lives! - Stitch, stitch, stitch, - In poverty, hunger, and dirt, - Sewing at once, with a double thread, - A shroud as well as a shirt.” - -Under the magnetic constraint of his fixed gaze the woman looked towards -the door. She recognized her visitor, and with a little glad cry started -to her feet. Tom Hammond pushed the door open and entered the room. She -sprang to meet him. - -Now that he saw her, he realized the expression of her face had changed. -Heaven—all the heaven of God’s indwelling pardon, love, peace, had come -to dwell with her. All that she had said in her letter of her new-found -joy, was fully confirmed by her looks. - -“How good of you to come to see me, Mr. Hammond!” she cried, as she felt -the clasp of his hand. - -“How good of you to write me of your new-found happiness!” He smiled back -into her glad, eager eyes. - -He took the chair she offered, and with a question or two sought to lead -her on to talk of the subject about which he had come to see her. - -“The very title of the subject,” Hammond explained, “is perfectly foreign -to me.” - -“It was all so, _so_ foreign to me,” she returned. Then, as swift tears -flooded her eyes, she turned to him with a little rapturous cry, saying,— - -“And it would all have been foreign to me for ever, but for _you_, Mr. -Hammond. I never, _never_ can forget that but for you my soul would have -been in a suicide’s hell, where hope and mercy could never have reached -me. As long as I shall live I shall never forget the awful rush of -soul-accusation that swept over me, when my body touched the foul waters -of that muddy river that night. The chill and shock of the waters I did -_not_ feel, but the chill of eternal condemnation for my madness and sin -I did feel. - -“I saw all my life as in a flash. All the gracious warnings and pleadings -that ever, in my hearing, fell from my sainted father’s lips, as he -besought men and women to be reconciled to God, seemed to swoop down -upon me, condemning me for my unbelief and sin. Then—then you came to my -rescue—and——” - -Her tears were dropping thick and fast now. - -“And—my soul—had respite given in which to—to—seek God—because—you saved -my body.” - -Overcome with her emotion, she turned her head to wipe away the grateful -tears. When next she faced him, her voice was low and tender, her eyes -glowed with a light that Tom Hammond had never seen in a human face -before. - -“Now, if my Lord come,” she said softly, rapturously, “whether at -morning, at noontide, at midnight, or cock-crowing, I shall be ready to -meet Him in the air. - -“I used to think that if ever I was converted, I should meet my dear -father and mother at the last day, at the great final end of all things. - -“But now I know that if Jesus came for His people to-day, that I should -meet my dear ones to-day. For when ‘the Lord Himself shall descend from -heaven ... the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive -and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet -the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.’” - -Tom Hammond gazed at the speaker in wonder. The glory that filled her -face, the triumph and rapture that rang in her voice, were a strange -revelation to him. - -“A starvation wage for making slop-shirts,” he mused, “yet more than -triumphing over every discomfort of poverty by the force of the divine -hope that dominates her! What is this hope?” - -“Tell me of this wondrous thing, Mrs. Joyce,” he said, aloud, “that can -transmute your poverty and suffering to triumph and rapture, and your -comfortless garret to a heaven on earth.” - -“Before I begin,” she replied, “tell me, Mr. Hammond, have ever you seen -this?” - -From the window-shelf she reached a tiny envelope booklet. - -“‘Long Odds’!” he said, reading the boldly-printed title of the book. -“No; I have never seen this. It sounds sporting, rather.” - -“Take it, Mr. Hammond,” she went on; “if it does nothing else, it will -awaken your interest in this wonderful subject.” - -He slipped the book into his breast-pocket. She opened her mouth to speak -again, when a sound from outside caught her ear. She started to her feet; -her face turned deadly pale. The next instant the door was flung noisily -open, and her husband entered the room. - -The blear-eyed, drunken scoundrel glared at the two seated figures, then -laughed evilly as he cried,— - -“Turned religious? Oho! oho! Like all the rest of your religious people, -make a mantle—a regular down-to-your-feet ulster—of your religion to -cover every blackness and filthiness of life.” - -“Silence, you foul-mouthed blackguard!” - -Tom Hammond’s lips were white with the indignation that filled him, as he -flung his command to the man. - -“Silence yourself, Tom Hammond!” bellowed the drunken scoundrel. “I know -you,” he went on. “You’re a big bug now! Think no end of yourself, and of -your messing paper. Perhaps you’ll say you came to invite me to join your -staff, now that I’ve caught you here?” - -His sneering tone changed to one of bitterest hate, as he turned to the -white, trembling woman. - -“You’re a beauty, ain’t you? Profess to turn saint; then, when you think -I’m clear away, you receive visits from fine gentlemen! Gentlemen? bah! -they’re——” - -“Silence, you drunken, foul-mouthed beast!” again interrupted Tom Hammond. - -There was something amazing in the command that rang in the indignant -tones of his voice. - -“Unless,” he went on, “you want to find yourself in the grip of the law.” - -For a moment or two Joyce was utterly cowed! then the devil in him reared -its head again, and he hissed, - -“You clear out of here, and remember this; if I have to keep sober for a -year to do it, I’ll ruin you, Tom Hammond, I will!” - -He laughed with an almost demoniacal glee, as he went on: - -“I can write a par yet, you know. I’ll dip my pen in the acid of -hate—hate, the hate of devils, my beauty—and then get Fletcher to put -them into his paper. He’s not in love with the ‘Courier,’ or with Tom -Hammond, the Editor.” - -“You scurrilous wretch!” It was all that Hammond deigned to reply. - -“Good day, Mrs. Joyce!” he bowed to the white-faced woman. - -For her sake he did not offer to shake hands, but moved away down the -stairs. - -He caught a hansom a few moments after leaving the mean street. He -had purposed, when he started out that morning, to hunt up his other -correspondent, the Jew, Abraham Cohen. But after the scene he had just -witnessed, he felt quite unwilling to interview a stranger. - -“I wish,” he mused, as he sat back in the hansom, “I had not gone near -that poor soul. I am afraid my visit may make it awkward for her.” - -His eyes darkened as he added: “And even for myself. It will be very -awkward if that drunken brute puts his threat into execution—and he -_will_, I believe. Innuendo is a glass stiletto, which, driven into the -victim’s character, into his heart and then snapped off from the hilt, -leaves no clue to the striker of the blow. And a demon like that Joyce, -playing into the hands of a cur like Fletcher, may slay a fellow by a -printed innuendo, and yet the pair may easily keep outside the reach of -the law of libel.” - -For the first time since the floating of the “Courier,” his spirits -became clouded. - -“Then, too,” he muttered, “there is this sudden breakdown of Marsden, -and, for the life of me, I don’t know where to look for a fellow, whom -I could secure at short notice, who is at all fit for the ‘Courier’s’ -_second_.” - -His face had grown moody. His eyes were full of an unwonted depression. - -“If only,” he went on, “Bastin had been in England, and were to be got——” -He sighed. There was perplexity in the sigh. - -“Where on earth can Ralph be all these years?” he muttered. - -He glanced out of the cab to ascertain his own whereabouts. In two -minutes more he would be at the office. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -IN THE NICK OF TIME. - - -As Tom Hammond’s cab drew up at the office, another hansom drew up a yard -ahead of his. The occupant alighted at the same instant as did Hammond, -and glanced in his direction. Both men leaped forward, their hands were -clasped in a grip that told of a very warm friendship. Like simultaneous -pistol shots there leaped from their separate lips,— - -“Tom Hammond!” - -“Ralph Bastin?” - -The friends presently passed into the great building, arm linked in arm, -laughing and talking like holiday school-boys. - -“Not three minutes ago, as I drove along in my cab, I was saying, ‘Oh! if -only I could lay my hand on Ralph!” - -They were seated by this time in Tom Hammond’s room. - -“Why? What did you want, Tom—anything special?” the bronzed, travelled -Bastin asked. - -“Rather, Ralph! My second, poor Frank Marsden, has broken down suddenly; -it’s serious, may even prove fatal, the doctors say. Anyway, he won’t be -fit (if he recovers at all) for a year or more.” - -He leaned eagerly towards his friend as he spoke, and asked, - -“Are you open to lay hold of the post?” - -“Yes.” - -“When?” - -“To-morrow, if you like!” - -“Good!” - -Hammond stretched his hand out. Bastin grasped it. Then they talked over -terms, duties, etc. - -“But you, man?” said Hammond, when the last bit of shop had been talked. -“Where have you been? What have you been doing?” - -“Busy for an hour, Tom?” Bastin asked, by way of reply. - -“No!” - -“Come round to my diggings, then; not far—Bloomsbury. We can talk as we -go. I shall have time to give you a skeleton of my adventures, to be -filled in later. Then, when we get to my hang-out, I can tell you, when -you have seen _her_, the story of my chief adventure, for it concerns -her.” - -Hammond flashed a quick, wondering glance at his friend. - -“_Her!_” he said; “are you married, then?” - -“No,” laughed Bastin, “but I’ve adopted a child. But come on, man!” - -The pair left the office. In the cab, talking very rapidly, Bastin gave -the skeleton sketch of his wanderings, but saying no word of the promised -great adventure. - -Tom Hammond never forgot the first sight of his friend’s adopted child. -There was a low grate in the room, a blazing fire of leaping, flaming -coals in the grate. Curled up in a deep saddle-bag armchair was the -loveliest girl-child Hammond had ever seen. - -She must have been half asleep, or in a deep reverie, but as the two men -advanced into the room she sprang from the chair, and, with eyes gleaming -with delight, bounded to meet Bastin. Wreathing her arms about his neck, -she crooned softly over him some tongue of her own. - -She was loveliness incarnated. Her eyes, black as sloes, were big, round, -and wide in their staring wonder at Hammond’s appearance. Her hair was a -mass of short curls. She was dark of skin as some Spanish beauty. - -Her costume lent extra charm to her appearance; for she wore a long, -Grecian-like robe of some light, diaphanous ivory-cream fabric, -engirdled at the waist with a belt composed of some sort of glistening -peacock-green shells, buckled with frosted silver. The simple but -exquisite garment had only short shoulder-sleeves, and was cut low -round the throat and neck, and finished there—as were the edges of the -shoulder-sleeves—with a two-inch wide band of sheeny silk of the same -colour as the shells of her belt. The opening at the neck of the robe -was fastened with a brooch of frosted silver of the same pattern, only -smaller, as the buckle of the belt. - -From beneath the silk-bound hem of her robe there peeped bronze slippers, -encasing the daintiest little crimsoned-stockinged feet ever used for -pedalling this rough old earth’s crust. - -Bastin introduced the child. She gave Tom her hand, and lifted her -wondrous eyes to his, answering his question as to her health in the -prettiest of broken English he had ever heard. - -A moment or two later the three friends were seated—Tom and Bastin in -armchairs opposite each other, the child (Viola, Bastin had christened -her) on a low stool between Bastin’s knees. - -“Shall we use the old lingo—French?” Bastin asked the question in the -Bohemian Parisian they had been wont to use together years before. - -“As you please, Ralph,” Hammond replied. - -“I have told you hurriedly something of where I have been,” Bastin began. -“But I have reserved my _great_ story until I could tell it to you -here——” He glanced down at the child at his feet. “I heard,” he went on, -“when at La Caribe—as everyone hears who stays long in the place—that -each year, in spite of the laws of the whites, who are in power, a child -is sacrificed to the Carib deities, and I longed to know if it were true. - -“During my first few week’s sojourn on the little island of Utilla, I was -able to render one of the old priests a service, which somehow became so -exaggerated in his eyes that there was almost literally nothing that he -would not do for me, and eventually he yielded to my entreaties to give -me a chance to see for myself the yearly sacrifice, which was due in a -month’s time. - -“During that month of waiting I made many sketches of this wonderful -neighbourhood, and became acquainted with this little Carib maiden, -painting her in three or four different ways. The child became intensely -attached to me, and I to her, and we were always together in the daytime. - -“As the time drew near for the sacrifice I noticed that the little one -grew very elated, and there was a new flash in her eyes, a kind of -rapturous pride. I asked her no question as to this change, putting it -down as girlish pride in being painted by the ‘white prince,’ as she -insisted on calling me. - -“I need not trouble you, my dear fellow, with unnecessary details of how -and where the old priest led me on the eventful night, which was a black -as Erebus, but come to the point where the real interest begins. - -“It was midnight when at last I had been smuggled into that mysterious -cave, which, if only a tithe of what is reported be half true, has been -damned by some of the awfullest deeds ever perpetrated. My priest-guide -had made me swear, before starting, that whatever I saw I would make no -sign, utter no sound, telling me that if I did, and we were discovered, -we should both be murdered there and then. - -“We had hardly hidden ourselves before the whole centre of the cave -became illuminated with a mauve-coloured flame that burned up from a -flat brass brazier, and seemed like the coloured fires used in pantomime -effects on the English stage. By this wonderful light I saw a hundred -and fifty or more Carib men and women file silently into the cave, and -take up their positions in orderly rows all round the place. When they -had all mustered, a sharp note was struck upon the carimba, a curious -one-stringed instrument, and the circles of silent savages dropped into -squatting position on their heels. Then the weirdest of all weird music -began, the instruments being a drum, a flute, and the carimba. - -“But my whole attention became absorbed by the grouping in the centre of -the room—the fire-dish had been shifted to one side, and I saw a hideous -statue, squatted on a rudely-constructed, massive table, the carved hands -gripping a bowl that rested on the stone knees of the image. The head of -the hideous god was encircled with a very curious band, that looked, from -where I stood, like bead and grass and feather work. The face—cheeks and -forehead—was scored with black, green and red paint, the symbolic colours -of that wondrous race that once filled all Central America. - -“In the back part of the wide, saucer-like edge of the bowl which rested -on the knees of the statue, there burned a light-blue flame, and whether -it was from this fire, or from the larger one that burned in the wide, -shallow brazier on the floor, I cannot positively say, but a lovely -fragrance was diffused from one or the other. - -“Before this strange altar stood three very old priests, while seven -women (sukias,) as grizzled as the men, stood at stated intervals about -the altar. One of these hideous hags had a dove in her hand; another -held a young kid clasped between her strong brown feet; a third held the -sacrificial knife, a murderous-looking thing, made of volcano glass, -short in blade, and with a peculiar jagged kind of edge; another of these -hags grasped a snake by the neck—a blood-curdling-looking tamagas, a -snake as deadly as a rattle-snake. - -“Opposite the centre-man of the three old priests stood a girl-child, -about ten years of age, and perfectly nude. During the first few moments -the vapourous kind of smoke that was wafted by a draught somewhere, from -the fire-pan on the floor of the cave, hid the child’s features, though -I could see how beautiful of form she was; then, as the smoke-wreath -presently climbed straight up, I was startled to see that the child was -my little friend. - -“In my amaze I had almost given vent to some exclamation, but my old -priest-guide was watching me, and checked me. - -“My little one’s beautiful head was wreathed with jasmine, and a garland -of purple madre-de-cacoa blossoms hung about her lovely shoulders. - -“Suddenly, like the barely-audible notes of the opening music of some -orchestral number, the voice of one of the priests began to chant; in -turn the two other priests took up the strain; then each of the seven -hags in their turn, and anon each in the first circle of squatting -worshippers, followed by each woman in the second row: and in this order -the chant proceeded, until, weird and low, every voice was engaged. - -“Suddenly the combined voices ceased, and one woman’s voice alone rose -upon the stillness; and following the sound of the voice, I saw that it -was the mother of my little native child-friend. I had not noticed her -before—she had been squatting out of sight. Hers was not the chant of -the others, but a strange, mournful wail. It lasted about a minute and -a-half; then, rising to her feet, she gently thrust the child forward -towards the altar, then laid herself face down on the floor of the cave. - -“The little one leaned against the edge of the altar, and taking up, with -a tiny pair of bright metal tongs, a little fire out of the back edge of -the bowl on the knees of the god, she lighted another fire on the front -edge of the bowl, her suddenly-illuminated face filled with a glowing -pride. - -“Then, at a signal from the head priest, the child lifted her two hands, -extended them across the altar, when they were each seized by the two -other priests, and the beautiful little body was drawn slowly, gently -over, until the smooth breast almost touched the sacrificial fire she had -herself lighted. - -“Then I saw the woman who had held the knife suddenly yield it up to the -head priest, and I made an unconscious movement to spring forward. - -“My guide held me, and whispered his warning in my ear: yet, even though -I must be murdered myself, I felt I dared not see that sweet young life -taken. - -“Like a man suffering with nightmare, who wants to move, but cannot, I -stood transfixed, fascinated, one instant longer. But in that flashing -instant the head priest had swept, with lightning speed, the edge of that -hideous knife twice across the little one’s breast, and she stood smiling -upwards like one hypnotized. - -“The priest caught a few drops of the child’s blood, and shook them into -the bowl of the god; then I saw the little one fall into her mother’s -arms; there was a second sudden flashing of that hideous knife, a -piteous, screaming cry, and I gave vent to a yell—but not _voice_ to -it,—for the watching guide at my side clapped one hand tightly over my -mouth, while with the other he held me from flying out into the ring of -devils, whispering in my ear as he held me back, - -“‘It is the goat that is slain, not the child.’ - -“Another glance, and I saw that this was so; one flash of that obsidian -sacrificial blade across the throat of the kid had been enough, and now -the blood was being drained into the bowl of the god. - -“I need not detail all the other hideous ceremonies; they lasted for -nearly two hours longer, ending with a mad frenzied dance, in which all -joined save the priests and the mother and child. - -“Every dancer, man and woman, flung off every rag of clothing, and -whirled and leaped and gyrated in their perfect nudity, until, utterly -exhausted, one after another they sank upon the floor. - -“Then slowly they gathered themselves up, reclothed themselves, and left -the cave. And now some large pine torches were lighted, and my guide drew -me further back, that the increased glare might not reveal our presence, -and I saw the curious ending to this weird night’s work. The priests -and their seven women sukias opened a pit in the floor of the cave by -shifting a great slab of stone, and lowered the idol into the pit. The -remains of the kid, the sacrificial knife, and the dove were dropped into -the bowl of blood that rested on the knees of the idol; then the sukia -that had held the tamagas snake during the whole of those hideous night -hours, dropped the writhing thing into the bowl, and the slab was lowered -quickly over the pit, every seam around the slab being carefully filled, -and the whole thing hidden by sprinkling loose dust and the ashes from -the fire over the spot. - -“Then, as soon as the last of the performers had cleared the cave, I -followed my guide, and with a throbbing head, and full of a sense of -strange sickness, I went to the house where I was staying. - -“I lay down upon my bed, but could not sleep; and as early as I dared I -went round to my little Martarae’s home—Martarae was her native name. Her -mother met me, said that the child would not come out in the sun to-day, -that I might see her for a moment if I pleased, but that she was not very -well. - -“Sweet little soul! I found her lying on her little bed, with a proud -light in her eyes, and a very flushed face. - -“A fortnight later the light flesh wounds were healed. She showed me her -breast, confided to me the story, and asked me if I did not think she had -much to be proud of. - -“‘Will you keep a secret?’ I asked her. She gave me her promise, and I -told her how I had seen the whole thing, and all my fears for her. - -“A week later she was orphaned. Her mother was stung by a deadly -scorpion, and died in an hour, and I made the child my care. - -“She has travelled everywhere with me ever since, and you see how fair -and sweet she is, and how beautifully she speaks our English. She is -barely twelve, is naturally gifted, and is the very light of my life.” - -“Would she let me see her breast, Ralph, do you think?” Hammond asked. - -Bastin smiled, and spoke a word to the child, and she, rising to her feet -and smiling back at him, unfastened the broach at her throat, and, laying -back her breast-covering, showed the gleaming, shiny scars. Then as she -re-covered her chest, she said softly: - -“Ralph has taught me that those gods were evil; but though I shall ever -wear this cross in the flesh of my breast, I shall ever love the Christ -who died on the world’s great cross at Calvary.” - -“It is a most marvellous story, Ralph,” he said tearing his eyes away -from the child’s clear, searching gaze. - -“The more marvellous because absolutely true,” returned Bastin. - -Then, addressing Viola, and relapsing, of course, into English for her -sake, he explained who Tom Hammond was, and that he (Ralph) was going to -be associated with him on the same great newspaper. - -“Mr. Hammond and you, Viola, must be real good friends,” he added. - -“Sure, daddy!” the girl said smilingly; “I like him much already——” - -She lifted herself slightly until she rested on her knees, and stretching -one hand across the hearthrug to Tom Hammond, she laid the other in her -guardian’s, as she went on: - -“Mr. Hammond is good! I know, I know, for his eyes shine true.” - -A ripple of merry laughter escaped her, as she gazed back into her -guardian’s face, and added: - -“But you, daddy, are always first.” - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -“LONG ODDS.” - - -For a wonder, Tom Hammond could not sleep. Usually, when the last thing -had been done, and he was assured that everything was in perfect train -for the morning’s issue, he ate a small basin of boiled milk and bread, -which he invariably took by way of a “night-cap,” then went to bed, and -slept like a tired ploughman. But to-night slumber would have none of him. - -“It must be the various excitements of the day,” he muttered. “That story -of Ralph’s Caribbean child was enough to keep a fellow’s brain working -for a week. Then there was meeting Ralph so unexpectedly, just, too, when -I so lusted for his presence and help. Then there was that Joyce item——” - -His mind trailed off to the scene of the morning, every item of it -starting up in a new and vivid light. Suddenly he recalled the booklet -Mrs. Joyce had given him. - -“I can’t sleep,” he murmured; “I’ll find that thing and read it.” - -His fingers sought the electric switch. The next moment the room was full -of light. He got out of bed, passed quickly through to his dressing-room, -found the coat that he had worn that morning, and secured the booklet. - -He went back again to bed, and, lying on his elbow, opened the dainty -little printed thing and began to read thus: - - “LONG ODDS” - -“You don’t say so! Where on earth has she gone?” - -“I can’t say, sir, but it’s plain enough she _is_ missing. Hasn’t been -seen since last night when she went up to her room.” - -I _was_ put out, I own; my man on waking me had informed me that the -cook was missing; she had gone to bed without anything being noticed -amiss, and was now nowhere to be found. She was always an odd woman, but -a capital cook. What had become of her? The very last sort of person to -disappear in this way—a respectable elderly Scotchwoman—really quite a -treasure in the country; and the more I thought of it while I dressed, -the more puzzled I became. I hardly liked to send for the police; and -then again it was awkward, very—people coming to dinner that day. It was -really too bad. - -But I had scarcely finished dressing when in rushed my man again. I do so -dislike people being excited, and he was more than excited. - -“Please, sir, Mr. Vend has come round to see you; his coachman has -gone—went off in the night, and hasn’t left a trace behind, and they say -the gardener’s boy is with him.” - -“Well,” said I, “it is extraordinary; tell Mr. Vend I’m coming; stay, -I’ll go at once.” - -It was really past belief—the three of them! After an hour’s talk with -Vend, no explanation offered itself, so we decided to go to town as usual. - -We walked down to the station, and saw at once something was wrong. Old -Weeks, the stationmaster, was quite upset: his pointsman was missing, and -the one porter had to take up his duty. However, the train coming up, we -had no time to question him, but jumped in. There were three other people -in the compartment, and really I thought I was going off my head when I -heard what they were discussing. Vend, too, didn’t seem to know if he was -on his head or his heels. It was this that startled us so: “What can have -become of them all?” - -I heard no more. I really believe I swooned, but at the next station—a -large one—we saw consternation on every face. I pinched myself to see if -I was dreaming. I tried to persuade myself I was. Vend looked ghastly. A -passenger got in; he did not look quite so dazed as some did, but savage -and cross. For a time none spoke; at last someone said aloud—I don’t -think he expected an answer— - -“What on earth’s become of them?” and the cross looking man, who got in -last, growled out, - -“That’s the worst of it; they are not _on earth_, they are gone. My boy -always said it would be so; from the very first moment I heard it, I knew -what had happened; often he has warned me. I still have his voice ringing -in my ears. - -“‘I tell you, in _that night_ there shall be two men in one bed: the one -shall be taken, and the other shall be left.’ (Luke xvii. 34.) - -“I know only too well ‘_that night_’ was _last_ night. I’ve often prayed -for it without thinking, and so I daresay have you: ‘Thy kingdom come.’ -It makes me so savage I don’t know what to do.” - -Now, I was an atheist, and did not believe the Bible. For the last thirty -years (I am past fifty) I had stuck to my opinions, and when I heard men -talk religious trash I invariably objected. - -But this seemed altogether different. I tell you, for a thousand pounds -I couldn’t have said a word. I just hoped it would all turn out a dream, -but the further we went, the more certain it became that we were all -awake, and that by some unaccountable visitation of Providence a number -of people had suddenly disappeared in the night. - -The whole of society was unhinged; everybody had to do somebody’s else’s -work. For instance, at the terminus, a porter had been put into Smith’s -stall, as the usual man was missing. Cabs were not scarce, but some -of those who drove them seemed unlicensed and new to their work. The -shutters in some of the shops were up, and on getting to my bank I heard -the keys had only just been found. - -Everyone was silent, and afraid lest some great misfortune was coming. -I noticed we all seemed to mistrust one another, and yet as each fresh -clerk, turned up late, entered the counting-room, a low whisper went -round. The chief cashier, as I expected, did not come. The newspapers no -one cared to look at; there seemed a tacit opinion that _they_ could tell -us nothing. - -Business was at a standstill. I saw that very soon. I hoped as the day -wore on that it would revive, but it did not. The clerks went off without -asking my permission, and I was left alone. I felt I hated them. I did -not know what to do. I could not well leave, else they might say the bank -had stopped payment, and yet I felt I could not stay there. Business -seemed to have lost its interest, and money its value. I put up the -shutters myself, and at once noticed what a change had come over the City -while I had been at the bank. _Then_ all were trying to fill the void -places; _now_ it seemed as if the attempt had failed. - -In the City some of the streets had that dismal Sunday appearance, -while a few houses had been broken into; but in the main thoroughfares -there was a dense mass of people, hurrying, it struck me, they knew not -where. Some seemed dazed, others almost mad with terror. At the stations -confusion reigned, and I heard there had been some terrible accidents. I -went into my club, but the waiters had gone off without leave, and one -had to help oneself. - -As evening came on, I saw the lurid reflection of several fires, but, -horrible to say, no one seemed to mind, and I felt myself that if the -whole of London were burnt, and I with it, I should not care. For the -first time in my life I no longer feared Death: I rather looked on him as -a friend. - -As the gas was not lit, and darkness came down upon us, one heard cries -and groans. I tried to light the gas, but it was not turned on. I -remembered there was a taper in the writing-room. I went and lit it, but -of course it did not last long. I groped my way into the dining-room, -and helped myself to some wine, but I could not find much, and what I -took seemed to have no effect; and when I heard voices, they fell on me -as if I were in a dream. They were talking of the Bible, though, and it -now seemed the one book worth thinking of, yet in our vast club library I -doubt if I should have found a single copy. - -One said: “What haunts me are the words ‘Watch therefore.’ You can’t -_watch_ now.” - -I thought of my dinner party. Little had I imagined a week ago, when I -issued the invitations, how I should be passing the hour. - -Suddenly I remembered the secretary had been a religious fanatic, and -I made my way slowly to his room, knocking over a table, in my passage, -with glasses on it. It fell with a crash which sounded through the house, -but no one noticed it. By the aid of a match I saw candles on his writing -table and lit them. Yes! as I thought, there was his Bible. It was open -as if he had been reading it when called away, and another book I had -never seen before lay alongside of it—a sort of index. - -The Bible was open at Proverbs, and these verses, being marked, caught my -eye: - -“Because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched out My hand and -no man regarded; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when -your fear cometh.” - -I had never thought before of God laughing—of God mocking. I had fancied -man alone did that. Man’s laughing had ended now—I saw that pretty plain. - -I had a hazy recollection of a verse that spoke of men wanting the rocks -to fall on them; so looked it up in the index. Yes, there was the word -“Rock,” and some of the passages were marked with a pencil. One was Deut. -xxxii. 15: “He forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock -of our Salvation.” - -Perhaps he marked that passage after he had had a talk with me. How -well I remember the earnestness with which he pressed salvation upon -me that day—explaining the simplicity of trusting Christ and His blood -for pardon—and assuring me that if I only yielded myself to the Lord I -should understand the peace and joy he talked about. But it was no use. I -remember I only chaffed him, and said mockingly that his God was a myth, -and time would prove it, and he answered, - -“Never. ‘Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Word shall not pass -away.’ He may come to-night.” - -I laughed and said, “What odds will you take? I lay you long ones.” - -Another passage marked was 1 Samuel ii. 2, “Neither is there any rock -like our God,” and lower still “Man who built his house upon a rock.” - -I had no need to look that out. I knew what it referred to, and then my -eye caught Matt. xxvii. 51, “The earth did quake, and the rocks rent.” -That was when Christ died to save sinners, died to save me—and yet I had -striven against Him all my life. I could not bear to read more. I shut -the book and got up. There were some texts hanging over the fireplace: - -“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted -out.”—Acts iii. 19. - -“The blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanseth us from all sin.”—1 John i. -7. - -“Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”—2 Cor. -vi. 2. - -As I turned to leave the room these caught my eye, and I said, “Well, I -have been a fool.” - -Tom Hammond looked up from the little booklet,—a look of bewilderment was -in his eyes, a sense of blankness, almost of stupefaction, in his mind. -Like one who, half stunned, passes through some strange and wondrous -experience, and slowly recalls every item of that experience as fuller -consciousness returns, he went, mentally, slowly over the story of the -little book. - -“The verisimilitude of the whole story is little less than startling,” he -murmured. His eyes dropped upon the book again, and he read the last line -aloud: “Well, I have been a fool.” - -Slowly, meditatively, he added: “And I, with every other otherwise sane -man who has been careless as to whether such things are to be, am as big -a fool as the man in that book!” - -He laid the dainty little messenger down on the table by his bedside. His -handling of the book was almost reverential. Reaching to the electric -lever, he switched off the light. He wanted to think, and he could think -best in the dark. - -“Of course, I know _historically_,” he mused, “all the events of the -Christ’s life, His death, His resurrection, and—and——Well, _there_, -I think, my knowledge ends. In a vague way I have always known that -the Bible said something of a great final denouement to all the World -Drama—an award time of some kind, a millennium of perfect—perfect—well -perfect everything that is peaceful and——Oh, I don’t know much about -it, after all. I am very much in a fog, I see, for Mrs. Joyce and that -booklet both speak of a return of Christ into the air, whither certain -dead and certain living are to be caught up to be with Him and to begin -an eternity of bliss.” - -For a moment or two he tried to disentangle his many thoughts; then, with -a weary little sigh, he gave up the task, murmuring: “_I_ certainly am -not ready for any such event. If there is to be a hideous leaving behind -of the _un_ready, then I should be left to all that unknown hideousness.” - -A myriad thoughts crowded upon his brain. He gave up, at length, the -perplexing attempt to think out the problem, telling himself that with -the coming of the new day he would begin a definite search for the real -facts of this great mystery—the second coming of Christ. - -By an exercise of his will he finally settled himself to sleep. - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH. - - -“Will you come into my workroom, Mr. Hammond? It is a kind of sanctum to -me as well as a workroom, and I always feel that I can talk freer there -than anywhere else.” - -It was the Jew, Abraham Cohen, who said these words. His visitor was Tom -Hammond. It was the morning after that Tom Hammond had been troubled -about “Long Odds” and its mysterious subject. - -Jew and Gentile had had a few moments’ general talk in the sitting-room -downstairs, but Cohen wanted to see his visitor alone—to be where nothing -should interrupt their conversation. - -Tom Hammond’s first vision of Cohen’s workroom amazed him. As we have -seen before, the apartment was a large one, and, besides being a -workroom, partook of the character of a study, den, sanctum—anything of -that order that best pleases the reader. - -But it was the finished work which chiefly arrested the attention of -Tom Hammond, and in wondering tones he cried: “It is all so exquisitely -wrought and fashioned! But _what_ can it be for?” - -Cohen searched his visitor’s face with his deep grave eyes. - -“Will you give me your word, Mr. Hammond,” he asked, “that you will hold -in strictest confidence the fact that this work is here in this place, if -I tell you what it is for?” - -“I do give you my word of honour, Mr. Cohen.” As he spoke, Tom Hammond -held forth his hand. The Jew grasped the hand, there was an exchange of -grips; then, as their clasp parted, the Jew said: - -“I do not wish to bind you to any secrecy as to the fact that such work -as this is being performed in England, but only that you should preserve -the secret of the whereabouts of the work and workers.” With a sudden -glow of pride—it flashed in his eyes, it rang in his tones—he cried, -“This work is for the New Temple!” - -“The New Temple? I don’t think I quite understand you, Mr. Cohen. Where -is this temple being built?” There was amaze in Tom Hammond’s voice. - -“It is not yet begun,” replied the Jew. “That is, the actual rearing has -not yet begun, though the preparations are well forward. The New Temple -is to be at Jerusalem, Mr. Hammond.” - -The ring of pride deepened in his voice as he went on: “There can be no -other site for the Temple of Jehovah save Zion, the city of our God, -beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth—the centre of the -world, Mr. Hammond.” - -As he talked, Tom Hammond, watching him intently, saw how the soul of the -man and the hope of the true Israelite shone out of his eyes. - -Crossing the room to where a chart of the world (on Mercator’s -Projection) hung on the wall, the Jew took an inch-marked straight-edge, -and laying one end of it on Barrow Point, Alaska, he marked the spot -on the straight-edge where it touched Jerusalem. From Jerusalem to -Wrangel Land, Siberia, farthest east, he showed by his straight-edge -that practically he got the same measurement as when from the west. From -Jerusalem to North Cape, Scandinavia, and from Jerusalem to the Cape of -Good Hope, he showed again was each practically the same distance. - -“Always, always, is Zion the centre of the inhabited earth!” he cried in -quiet, excited tones. Moving quickly back to Hammond’s side, he said: -“Did you ever think of this, sir, that, practically speaking, all the -nations west of Jerusalem (those of Europe) write from west to east—that -is, towards the city of our God; whilst all the Asiatic races (those -east of Zion) write from east to west—just the opposite,—but always -_towards_ Zion? No, no, sir; there can be no other place on earth for the -New Temple of Jehovah save Jerusalem. Read Ezekiel, from the fortieth -chapter, sir, and you will see how glorious a Temple Jehovah is to have -soon. ‘Show the house to the people of Israel,’ God said in vision to His -prophet, ‘and let them build it after the sum, the pattern which I show -you.’ And that, sir, is what we are doing.” - -“Who are the _we_ who are doing this?” Tom Hammond’s face was as full of -wonder as his voice. “Who,” he continued, “makes the plans, gives the -orders, finds the funds?” - -“Wealthy, patriotic men of our people, sir. We as a race are learning -that soon the Messiah will come, and we are proving our belief by -preparing for the House of our God. Italian Jews all over Italy are -carving the richest marbles; wrought iron, wondrous works in metal, gold -and silver ornaments, cornices, chapiters, bells for the high priest’s -robes, and a myriad other things are being prepared; so that the moment -the last restriction on our land—the land of our fathers, the land which -Jehovah gave unto our forefather Abraham, saying, ‘Your seed shall -possess it’—is removed, we shall begin to ship the several prepared -parts of the Temple to Palestine, as the Gentiles term our land.” - -A curious little smile flittered over his face as he added, - -“The very march of modern times in the East, Mr. Hammond, is all helping -to make the consummation of our work more easy. The new railways laid -from the coast to Jerusalem are surely part of the providence of our God. -When Messiah comes, sir, we shall be waiting ready for Him, I trust.” - -“But do you not know,” Tom Hammond interrupted, “that according to -every record of history as well as the New Testament, all Christendom -has believed, for all the ages since, that the Messiah came nearly two -thousand years ago?” - -“The _Nazarene_?” - -There was as much or more of pity than scorn in the voice of the Jew as -he uttered the word. - -“How could _He_ be the Messiah, sir?” he went on. “Could any good thing -come out of Nazareth? Besides, _our Messiah_ is to redeem Israel, to -deliver them from the hand of the oppressor, and to gather again into one -nation all our scattered race. No, no! a thousand times No! The Nazarene -could not be _our_ Messiah!” - -Turning quickly to Hammond, he asked, “Are _you_ a Christian, sir?” - -For a moment Tom Hammond was startled by the suddenness, the -definiteness, of the question. He found no immediate word of reply. - -“You are a _Gentile_, of course, Mr. Hammond,” the Jew went on; “but are -you a Christian? For it is a curious fact that I find very few Gentiles -whom I have met, even _professed_ Christians, and fewer still who ever -pretend to live up to their profession.” - -Tom Hammond recovered himself sufficiently to say: - -“Yes, I am a Gentile, of course, and I _suppose_ I am—er——” - -It struck him, as he floundered in the second half of his reply, as being -very extraordinary that he should find it difficult to state why he -supposed he was a Christian. While he hesitated the Jew went on: - -“Why should you say you _suppose_, sir? Is there nothing distinctive -enough about the possession of Christianity to give assurance of it to -its possessor? I do not _suppose_ I am a _Jew_, sir (by religion I mean, -and not merely by race.) No, sir, I do not suppose, for I _know_ it. -There is all the difference in the world, it seems to me, sir, between -the mere theology and the religion of the faith we profess. The religion -is life, it seems to me, sir; theology is only the science of that life.” - -Both men were so utterly absorbed in their talk that they did not hear -a touch on the handle of the door. It was only as it opened that they -turned round. Zillah stood framed in the doorway. Cohen, who saw her -every day, realized that she had never looked so radiantly beautiful -before. She had almost burst into the room, but paused as she saw that a -stranger was present. - -“Excuse me,” she began; “I had no idea you had a friend with you, -Abraham.” - -She would have retreated, but he stopped her with an eager— - -“Come in, Zillah.” - -She advanced, gazing in curious inquiry at Hammond. - -“This is Mr. Tom Hammond, editor of the ‘Courier,’ Zillah,” Cohen -explained to the young girl. To Hammond he added, “My wife’s sister, -Zillah Robart.” - -The introduced pair shook hands. The young Jew went on to explain to -Zillah how the great editor came to be visiting him. - -Tom Hammond’s eyes were fixed upon the vision of loveliness that the -Jewess made. She was going to assist at the wedding of a girl-friend, and -had come to show herself to her brother-in-law before starting. Lovely at -the most ordinary times, she looked perfectly radiant in her well-chosen -wedding finery. - -Tom Hammond had seen female loveliness in many lands—East, North, West, -South. He had gazed upon women who seemed too lovely for earth—women -whose flesh was alabaster, whose glance would woo emperors; women whose -skins glowed with the olive of southern lands, the glance of whose black, -lustrous eyes intoxicated the beholder in the first instant: Inez of -Spain, Mousmee of Japan, Katrina of Russia, Carlotta of Naples, Rosie -of Paris, Maggie of the Scottish Highlands, Patty of Wales, Kate of -Ireland, and a score of other typical beauties. But this Jewish maiden, -this Zillah of Finsbury—she was beyond all his thought or knowledge of -feminine loveliness. - -While Cohen talked on for a moment or two, and Zillah’s eyes were fixed -upon her brother-in-law, Tom Hammond’s gaze was riveted upon the lovely -girl. - -Every feature of her beautiful face became photographed on his brain. Had -he been a clever artist, he could have gone to his studio and have flung -with burning, brilliant haste her face upon his canvas. - -He thought of Zenobia as he looked upon her brow. He wondered if ever two -such wide, black, lustrous eyes had ever shone in the face of a woman -before, or whether a female soul had ever before been mirrored in such -eyes. - -Her mouth was not the large, wide feature so often seen in women of -her race, but of exquisite lines, with ripe, full lips, as brilliant -in colour as the most glowing coral. Her eyes were fringed with the -blackest, finest, silkiest lashes. Her hair was raven in hue and wondrous -in its wealth. - -He realized, in that first moment of full gazing upon her, how faded -every other female face must ever seem beside her glorious beauty. With a -strange freak of mental conjuring, Madge Finisterre and that interrupted -tete-a-tete rose up before him, and a sudden sense of relief swept over -him that George Carlyon had returned at the moment that he did. - -“It is all so strange, so wonderful to me, what I have seen and heard -here,” he jerked out as Cohen finished his explanation. - -Hammond spoke to the beautiful girl, whose great lustrous eyes had -suddenly come back to his face. - -For a moment or two longer he voiced his admiration of the separate -pieces of finished work, and spoke of his own growing interest in the -Jewish race. - -The great black eyes that gazed upwards into his, grew liquid with the -evident emotion that filled the soul of the beautiful girl. With the -frank, hearty, simple gesture of the perfectly unconventional woman, she -held forth her hand to Hammond as she said: - -“It is so good of you, sir, to speak thus of my brother-in-law’s work -and of our race. There are few who speak kindly of us. Even though, as a -nation, you English give our poor persecuted people sanctuary, yet there -are few who care for us or speak kindly of us, and fewer still who speak -kindly to us.” - -Tom Hammond held the pretty, plump little hand that she offered him -clasped warmly in his, almost forgetting himself as he gazed down into -her expressive face and listened to her rich musical voice. There was an -ardency in his gaze that was unknown, unrealized, by himself. - -The olive of the girl’s cheeks warmed under the power of his gaze. He -saw the warm colour rise, and remembered himself, shifted his eyes, and -released her hand. - -“I must not stay another moment, Abraham,” she cried, turning to the Jew. -“Adah would be vexed if I were late.” - -She turned back to Hammond, but before she could speak he was saying, - -“Good-bye, Miss Robart; I hope we may meet again. What your brother has -already told me only incites me to come again and see him, for there are -many things I want to know.” - -He shook hands with the girl again. His eyes met hers, and again he saw -the olive cheeks suddenly warm. - -Ten minutes later he was driving back to his office, his mind in a -strange whirl, the beautiful face of Zillah Robart filling all his vision. - -He pulled himself up at last, and laughed low and amusedly as he murmured, - -“And I am the man whose pulses had never been quickened by the sight or -the touch of a woman until I met her——” - -The memory of Madge Finisterre flashed into his mind. He smiled to -himself as he mused: - -“Even when I seemed most smitten by Madge, by her piquant Americanism, -I told myself I was not sure that love had anything to do with my -feelings. Now I know it had not.” - -His eyes filled suddenly with a kind of staring wonder as he cried out, -in a low, startled undertone: - -“Am I inferring to myself that this sudden admiration for Zillah Robart -has any element of love in it?” - -He smiled at his own unuttered answer. The cab pulled up at the door of -the office at that moment. He came back sharply to everyday things. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -A DEMON. - - -Madge Finisterre awoke early on the morning after that discussion with -herself anent Hammond’s possible proposal. - -With startling suddenness, as she lay still a moment, a vision of the -pastor of Balhang came up before her mind. Then a strange thing happened -to her, for a yearning sense of home-sickness suddenly filled her. - -She tried to laugh at herself for her “childishness,” as she called it, -and sprang from her bed to prepare for her bath. Standing for one instant -by the bedside, she murmured: - -“But, after all, it is time I was paddling across again. Who ever heard -of anyone from our side staying here through the winter? I must think -this all out seriously. Anyway, I’ll get my bath, and dress, and go for a -stroll before breakfast. They say that one ought to see suburban London -pouring over the bridges into London city in the early morning. I’ll go -this morning.” - -Half-an-hour later she was dressed ready for her expedition. As she -passed the office on her way out, they were sorting the morning mail. She -waited for her letters. There was only one, but it was from home. - -Racing back to her room, she tore it open with an eagerness born, -unconsciously to herself, of the nostalgia that had seized upon her -three-quarters of an hour before. - -There were two large, closely-written sheets in the letter—one from her -father and one from her mother. Each told their own news. - -She read her father’s first; every item interested her, though as she -read she seemed to feel that there was all through it an underlying -strain of longing for her return. - -“Dear old poppa!” she murmured as she neared the finish of the epistle. - -Suddenly her eyes took in the two lines of postscript jammed close into -the bottom edge of the first sheet. Her heart seemed to stand still as -she read:— - -“Pastor is considered sick. Doctor can’t make his case out.” - -“Pastor sick!” She gasped the words aloud; then, turning swiftly to her -mother’s letter, she cried: “Momma will tell more than this!” - -Her eyes raced over the written lines. Her mother said a little more than -her father had done about the sickness of their friend and pastor; not -much, though, in actual words, but to the disturbed heart of the young -girl there seemed to her much deeper meaning. - -An excited trembling came upon her for a few moments. The next instant -she had put a strong curb upon herself, and, folding the letters, and -replacing them in the envelope, she cried out quietly, but sharply: - -“The boat from Southampton sails at two to-day. I’ll catch that!” - -The next instant she was divesting herself of her hat and jacket, and -began to set about her packing. - -Now and again she talked to herself thus: “Sick, is he? Poor old pastor! -I guess I know what’s the matter with him, and I’ll put him right in five -minutes.” - -She smiled as she went on: “I guess, too, I’ve found out what’s the -matter with me—I want to be a pastor’s wife!” - -The next instant her voice was carolling out: - - “For I tell them they need not come wooing of me, - For my heart, my heart, is over the sea.” - -Her fingers were busy, her mind all the time kept mentally arranging a -host of things. - -“I wonder,” she murmured presently, “how Uncle Archibald and George will -take my sudden departure? Well, I’m glad George is out of town. He’s been -showing signs of spoons lately with me, so it’s best, perhaps, that I -should get off without seeing him.” - - * * * * * - -By eleven that forenoon she had left Waterloo. Her uncle had seen her -off from the station. He wanted to accompany her to Southampton, but she -would not hear of it. - -“I want to be very quiet all the way down,” she said, “and write some -important letters. Make my excuses to everybody, and explain that I only -had an hour or two to do everything.” - -At the last moment her uncle slipped an envelope into her hand, saying, -“You are not to open it until you have been travelling a quarter of an -hour.” - -Then came the good-byes, and—off. - -She had been travelling _nearly_ a quarter of an hour when she opened the -envelope. There was a brief, hearty, loving note inside, in her uncle’s -hand-writing, expressing the joy her visit had given him, and his sense -of loneliness at her going, and saying: - - “Please, dear Madge, accept the enclosure in second envelope, - as a souvenir of your visit, from your affectionate - - “NUNKUMS.” - -She opened the smaller envelope. To her breathless amazement, she found a -Bank of England note for £1,000. When she recovered herself a little, a -smile filled her eyes as she murmured: - -“Fancy an American Methodist pastor’s wife with a thousand pounds of her -own! My!” - -The train was rushing on; she remembered that she had a special letter to -write. She opened her bag and took out writing materials. The carriage -rocked tremendously, but she managed to pen her letter. Before she -finally enclosed the letter in an envelope, she took from her purse a -two-inch cutting from the columns of some newspaper or magazine. This she -placed in the letter. - - * * * * * - -Tom Hammond had just settled himself down to work when a letter, bearing -the Southampton post-mark, was delivered to him. Opening it, and -reading “My dear Mr. Hammond,” he turned next to the signature. “Madge -Finisterre?” he cried softly, surprisedly, under his breath. Wonderingly -he turned back to the first page, and read: - -“You will be surprised to know that when you receive this I shall be -steaming down Channel _en route_ for New York. I got letters from home -this morning that made it imperative that I should start at once. - -“I cannot leave without thanking you for all your kindness to me. It has -been a pleasure to have known you, and I sincerely hope that we may meet -again some day. - -“Now I am going to take you right into my confidence, Mr. Hammond, for -who so discreet as a ‘prophet?’—vide ‘The Courier.’ - -“Yesterday evening, after dinner, I had a long talk alone with myself. -I had had a very pleasant tete-a-tete tea with a friend—perhaps you may -remember this,—and while I went over in mind many things in connection -with that tete-a-tete, especially the events immediately preceding the -interruption, I suddenly realized a sense of longing for home. - -“A night or two before I sailed from America, our pastor asked me to be -his wife. He was awfully in earnest, poor fellow; and I could see how -love for me—gay, frivolous little me—was consuming him. I was startled -at the proposition, and told him frankly that I did not know my own -mind, but that if ever I found out that I loved him, I would come right -away and tell him so. I found out this morning, when I heard that he was -dangerously sick, that I wanted him as much as ever he wanted me. At this -stage of the letter, please read the cutting enclosed.” - -Wondering what the clipping could have to do with the subject, Tom -Hammond laid down the letter and read the cutting: - -“A king had a son born to him in his old age, and was warned by his -astrologers and physicians, that his son would be blind if he ever saw -the light before he was twelve years old. Accordingly the king built -for him a subterranean chamber, where he was kept till he was past the -fatal age. Thereupon he was taken out from his retreat, and shown all -the beauties of the world, gold and jewels and arms, and carriages and -horses, and beautiful dresses. But seeing some women pass, he asked what -they might be, and was told, ‘Demons, who lead men astray.’ Afterwards -the king asked him which of all the beautiful things he had seen he -desired most, and the prince answered, ‘The demons which lead men astray.’ - -“I am going back to be demon to my pastor,” the letter went on, “to lead -him—not astray, I trust, but back to health. Please keep all this in -absolute confidence, for I have not given even a hint of it to my uncle. -Whenever you visit the States, be sure to come and visit me, for no one -will be more welcome from the Old Country than yourself. - -“By-the-bye, dear friend, apropos of your remark anent the presence of -a woman to make tea for you, keep the subject well before yourself, and -when you see the lady who can really satisfy all your ideals, propose -quickly, secure her, and—happy thought—do America by way of a honey-moon, -and come and see me. - - “Yours most sincerely, - - “MADGE FINISTERRE.” - -He smiled as he laid down the letter. For a moment all the bright, -piquant personality of the writer filled his vision. Then, with a -swiftness and completeness that was almost startling, her face vanished -from his mental picturing, and Zillah Robart, in all her radiant -loveliness, took the place in his thought and vision. - -For a brief while he was absorbed in his new vision. The sudden entrance -of Ralph Bastin dispelled his dreaming. - -After a few moments’ talk, Bastin cried, quite excitedly, “I say, Tom, -those pars of yours about the Jews are the talk of all London—our London, -I mean, of course.” - -Without breaking the confidence reposed in him by Cohen, Tom Hammond told -his friend what he had recently discovered as to the Jewish work on the -materials for the New Temple. - -“That’s strange, Tom,” returned Bastin. “I dropped in now as much as -anything to tell you that last night I met Dolly Anstruther—you remember -her, don’t you?—the little Yorkshire girl that was learning sculpture -when we were staying at Paris with Montmarte. - -“She has just come back from Italy, where she has been three years. She -told me how startled she was to hear from several sources about this New -Temple business. She said she visited a very large studio in Milan, and -saw the most magnificent pillar she had ever seen. She asked the great -artist what it was for, and he said, ‘It is a pillar for the New Temple -at Jerusalem.’ - -“In Rome she visited another great studio, and there she saw a duplicate -of the Milan pillar, and was told again, ‘Oh, that is a pillar for the -future Temple at Jerusalem.’ - -“In another place, where the most wonderful brass-work in the world is -turned out, she saw two magnificent gates; and, on inquiring where they -were destined to be hung, received the same reply, ‘In the future Temple -at Jerusalem.’ What does it all mean, Tom?” he added. - -“That is what I want to find out, to be perfectly sure of, Ralph. My -intelligent Jew, of whom I told you, declares that the Messiah is coming. -We, as Christians—nominal Christians, I mean, of course,—same as you and -I, Ralph, don’t profess anything more——” - -Bastin searched his friend’s face with a sudden keenness, but did not -interrupt him by asking him what he meant. - -“As nominal Christians,” Tom Hammond went on, “we believe the Christ -has already come. But the question has been aroused in my mind of late -(suggested by certain things that I have not time to go into now), does -the Bible teach that Christ is coming again, and are all these strange -movings among the Jews and in the politics of the world so many signs -and——” - -There came an interruption at that moment. The tape was telling of the -assassination of a Continental crowned head. Both men became journalists, -pure and simple, in an instant. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -MAJOR H—— ON “THE COMING!” - - -Tom Hammond was riding westwards in the Tube. It was the morning after -the events narrated in the last chapter. He had just bought from a -book-stall a volume of extracts from essays on art in all its branches. -He sat back in the comfortable seat of the car dipping into the book. -Suddenly an extract arrested his attention. - -It was evidently a description of the Crucifixion, but—most -tantalizing—the head of this page was torn, he could find out nothing -about the authorship. But the extract interested him:— - -“Darkness—sooty, portentous darkness—shrouds the whole scene; only -above the accursed wood, as if through a horrid rift in the murky -ceiling, a rainy deluge—‘sleety-flaw, discoloured water’—streams down -amain, spreading a grisly, spectral light, even more horrible than that -palpable night. Already the Earth pants thick and fast! The darkened -Cross trembles! The winds are dropt—the air is stagnant—a muttering -rumble growls underneath their feet, and some of the miserable crowd -begin to fly down the hill. The horses sniff the coming terror, and -become unmanageable through fear. The moment rapidly approaches, when, -nearly torn asunder by His own weight, fainting with loss of blood, -which now runs in narrower rivulets from His slit veins, His temples and -breast drowned in sweat, and His black tongue parched with the fiery -death-fever, Jesus cried, ‘I thirst.’ The deadly vinegar is elevated to -Him. - -“His head sinks, and the sacred corpse ‘swings senseless on the cross.’ A -sheet of vermilion flame shoots sheer through the air and vanishes; the -rocks of Carmel and Lebanon cleave asunder; the sea rolls on high from -the sands its black, weltering waves. Earth yawns, and the graves give up -their dwellers. The dead and the living are mingled together in unnatural -conjunction, and hurry through the Holy City. - -“New prodigies await them there. The veil of the Temple—the unpierceable -veil—is rent asunder from top to bottom, and that dreaded recess, -containing the Hebrew mysteries—the fatal ark, with the tables and -seven-branched candelabrum—is disclosed by the light of unearthly flames -to the God-deserted multitude.” - -“Strange!” he mused, as his eyes stared into space, his mind occupied -with the thought of the extract. “Strange how everything of late seems to -be compelling my attention to the Christ—Christ past, Christ future.” - -At that instant he heard someone mention the name of his paper. He -glanced in the direction of the voices. Two gentlemen were talking -together. It was evident that his own identity was utterly unknown to -them. - -“You’re right, you’re right,” the second man was saying. “A very clever -fellow, evidently, that editor of the _Courier_.” - -“You have noticed, of course,” the first man went on, “those striking -paragraphs, of late, about the Jews. Though, to a keen student of the -subject, they show a very superficial knowledge; still, it is refreshing -to find a modern newspaper editor writing like that at all.” - -“Yes,” the other said, “but it is strange how few people, even Christian -people, ever realize how intimately the future of the Jewish race is -bound up with that other shamefully neglected truth—the coming of the -Lord for His Church. I wish the editor of the _Courier_, and every other -newspaper editor, could be induced to go this afternoon and hear Major -H—— speak on these things at the —— Room.” - -“British Museum!” called the conductor of the car. The two talkers -got out. Tom Hammond also alighted. As he mounted in the lift to the -street, he decided that he would hear this major on the subject that was -occupying his own perplexed thought so much. - -Three o’clock that afternoon found him one of a congregation of three -to four hundred persons in the —— Room. He was amazed at the quality of -the audience. He recognized quite a dozen well-known London clergymen -and ministers, with a score of other equally well-known laymen—literary -men, merchants, etc. All were of a superior class. There was a large -sprinkling of ladies, who, in many cases, were evidently sisters. -Unaccustomed to such meetings, Tom Hammond did not know how enormous is -the number of Christian women who are to be found at special religious -gatherings, conventions, etc. - -There was a subdued hum of whispering voices in the place. The hum -suddenly ceased. Tom Hammond glanced quickly towards the platform. -Half-a-dozen gentlemen and one or two ladies were taking their seats -there. They bowed their heads in silent prayer. - -A minute later a tall, fine looking man, the centre one of the platform -group, rose to his feet and advanced to the rail. He held a hymn-book in -his hand. His keen eyes swept the faces of the gathered people. Then -in a clear, ringing voice like the voice of a military officer on the -battle-field, he cried: - -“Number three-twenty-four. Let every voice ring out in song.” - -Tom Hammond opened the linen-covered book that had been handed to him as -he entered, and was almost startled to note the likeness of the sentiment -of the hymn to the poem of B. M., which had struck him so forcibly that -night in his office. - -The major gave out the first verse: - - “It may be at morn, when the day is awaking, - When sunlight thro’ darkness and shadow is breaking, - That Jesus will come in the fulness of glory, - To take out of the world ‘His own.’” - -The major paused a moment to interpolate, “Let the gladness of the -thought ring out in your voices as you sing, but especially in the -chorus.” - - “O Lord Jesus, how long? - How long ere we shout the glad song - Christ returneth! Hallelujah! - Hallelujah! Amen!” - -The singing of that hymn was a revelation to Tom Hammond. He had heard -hearty, ringing, triumphant song at Handel festivals, etc., but among the -rank and file, so to speak, of Christians he had never heard anything -like the singing of that verse and chorus. - -A hundred thoughts and conflicting emotions filled him as he realized, as -the hymn went on, that these people were really inspired by the glorious -hope of the return of the Christ. Once he shuddered as the thought -presented itself to his mind, - -“How should _I_ fare if this Christ came suddenly—came now?” - -Twice over the last verse was sung, the quiet rapture of the singers -being doubly accentuated as the glorious words rang out: - - “Oh, joy! oh, delight! should we go without dying! - No sickness, no sadness, no dread, and no crying; - Caught up through the clouds with our Lord into glory, - When Jesus receives ‘His own.’” - -With the last-sung note the voice of the Major rang out again: - -“General Sir R. P.—— will lead us in prayer.” - -The hush that followed was of the tensest. It lasted a full half-minute, -then the old general’s voice led in a prayer such as Tom Hammond had -never even conceived possible to human lips, and such as, certainly, he -had never heard before. It awed him, and at the same time revealed to him -that real Christianity was something which he, with all his knowledge of -men and things, had never before come in contact with. - -The prayer concluded, not a moment was wasted. In his clear, ringing -tones, the major began: - -“Turn with me, if you will, dear friends, to the first chapter of the -Acts of the Apostles, and the eleventh verse.” - -Tom Hammond wished that he had a Bible with him. It seemed to him that -he was the only person there without one. In an instant every Bible was -opened at the passage named. There was no searching, no fumbling. This -was another revelation to him. - -“They know their Bibles,” he mused, “better than I do my dictionary or -encyclopædia.” - -But his attention was suddenly riveted on the major, who, pocket Bible in -hand, was saying; - -“Suffer me, friends, to change one word in my reading, that the truth may -come home clearer to our hearts. ‘Ye men of London, ... This same Jesus -which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye -have seen Him go into heaven.’” - -He paused for one instant, then went on: “The second coming of our Lord -and Saviour Jesus Christ is, I believe, the central truth of real, true -Christianity at this moment, and it should be carefully, diligently -studied by every converted soul. It should be comprehended as far as -Scripture reveals it, and so apprehended that we should live in daily, -hourly expectancy of that return. Moody, the great evangelist, to -whom the whole subject (as he tells us) was once most objectionable, -upon studying the Word of God for himself, in this connection, was so -profoundly impressed with the insistence with which the return of the -Lord was emphasized, that he was compelled to believe in it, and to -preach it, saying, ‘It is almost the most precious truth of all the -Bible. Why, one verse in thirteen throughout the New Testament is said to -allude to this wondrous subject in some form or another.’ - -“Many of you who are present this afternoon are not only conversant -with this glorious matter, but are living in the glad expectancy of the -return of your Lord. But there are sure to be some here to-day to whom -the whole subject is foreign, and to you—even if there be only one such—I -shall speak as plainly, frankly, simply, yearningly, as though we were -tete-a-tete.” - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -THE ADDRESS. - - -“Now to begin. Even in the Church of God there are whole multitudes to -whom the very title of this afternoon’s address is but jargon. They will -not search the Word for it, they will barely tolerate its mention. Why? -‘Oh,’ say some, ‘hidden things are not to be searched into.’ Others there -are who spiritualize every reference to the Lord’s second coming, and -say, ‘Yes, of course, He has come again, He has come into my heart, or -how else could I have become a child of God.’ - -“To these last, these dreamers, we would respectfully say, ‘A coming into -the air for His people, to take them up, is a totally different thing -to coming into the heart to indwell as Saviour and Keeper while we are -travelling life’s pathway.’ - -“There is another section of the Christian Church who say, ‘We do not -want to hear anything about it. Our minister don’t hold with it; it -is not a doctrine of our church.’ Now, such an argument as this is -blasphemous, since, if God has put it into His Word, it is blasphemy to -ignore it, to refuse to believe it. - -“Two distinct advents are plainly taught in Scripture. The first, -of Jesus’ birth as a Babe in Bethlehem, the second as ‘Son of -Man’—glorified, who shall come in the clouds. Now, every Christian will -admit, nay, more, the very worldling admits the fact that every Scripture -relating to the first advent, as to time, place, circumstances, was -literally fulfilled, even to the minutest detail. Then, in the name of -common-sense, with the same covenant Scriptures in our hands, why should -we not expect to see the predictions relating to the second advent also -fulfilled to the very letter? - -“We have our Lord’s own definite promise in John fourteen: ‘If I go, I -will come again and receive you unto Myself.’ We are all agreed that He -went. Well, in the same breath He said, ‘I will come again.’ Can any -English be plainer—‘And receive you unto Myself?’ That promise cannot -allude to conversion, and it certainly cannot allude to death, for death -is a going to Him—if we are saved. - -“This expectancy of Christ’s return for His people was the only hope of -the early Church; and over and over again, in a variety of ways in the -epistles it is shown to be the only hope of the Church, until that Church -is taken out of the world, as a bride is taken by the bridegroom from her -old home, to dwell henceforth in his. There never has been any comfort -to bereaved ones in the thought of death, nor to any one of us who are -living is there any comfort in the contemplation of death, save and -except, of course, the thought of relief from weariness and suffering, -and in being translated to a painless sphere, to be with Christ. But in -the contemplation of the coming of Christ, when the dead in Christ shall -rise, and those who are in Christ, who are still living when He comes, -there is the certainty of the gladdest meeting when all are ‘caught up -together in the air, to be for ever with the Lord.’ No waiting until the -end of the world but, if He came this afternoon—and this may happen—you -who have loved ones with Christ would that very instant meet them in the -air, with your Lord.” - -Tom Hammond listened intently to every word of the major’s, and, as -Scripture after Scripture was referred to, he saw how the speaker’s -statements were all verified by the Word of God. - -“There are two points I would emphasize here,” the major went on. “First, -that we must not confuse the second coming of the Lord—the coming in the -air—for His saints, with that later coming, probably seven years after, -when He shall come with His saints to reign. - -“And, secondly, to those to whom this whole subject may be new, I would -say, you must not confuse the second coming of our Lord with the end of -the world. The uninstructed, inexperienced child of God feels a quaking -of heart at all talk of such a coming. - -“Such people shrink from the suddenness of it. They say that there is no -preparatory sign to warn us of that coming. But that is not true. - -“The Word of God gives many instructions as to the signs of Christ’s near -return, and the hour we live in shows us these signs on every hand, so -that it is only those who are ignorant of the Word of God, or those who -are carelessly or wilfully blind to the signs around (and this applies, -we grieve to say, as much to ministers as to people,) who fail to see how -near must be the moment of our Lord’s return. - -“The first sign of this return is an awakening of national life among the -Jews, that shall immediately precede their return—in unbelief—to their -own land. Please turn with me to Matthew twenty-four.” - -There was again that soft rustle of turning leaves that had struck Tom -Hammond as so remarkable. Someone behind him, at the same instant, -passed a Bible, open at the reference, to him over his shoulder. With a -grateful glance and a murmured word of thanks, he accepted the loan of -the book. - -“I will read a verse or two here and there,” the major announced. “You -who know your Bibles, friends, will readily recall the subject-matter of -the previous chapter, and how our Lord after His terrible prediction upon -Jerusalem, added, ‘Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I -say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed -is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.’ - -“This is Jewish, of course, but the whole matter of the future of the -Jews and of the return of the Lord for His Church, and, later on, with -His Church, are bound up together. Presently, after uttering His last -prediction, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, - -“‘Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy -coming, and of the end of the world?” - -“Keep your Bibles open where you now have them, friends, and note -this—that the two-fold answer of our Lord’s is in the reverse order to -the disciples’ question. In verses four and five He points out what -should not be the sign of His coming. While, in verse six, He shows what -should not be the sign of the end of the world. With these distinctions I -shall have more to say another day. - -“This afternoon I want to keep close to the signs of the coming of the -Lord. Read then the thirty-second and third verses: ‘Now learn a parable -of the fig-tree: when its branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, -ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these -things, know that’—look in the margins of your Bible, please, and note -that the ‘it’ of the text becomes ‘He,’ which is certainly the only wise -translation—‘when ye shall see all these things, know that He is near, -even at your doors.’ - -“Now, I hardly need remind the bulk of you, friends, gathered here this -afternoon, that the fig-tree, in the Gospels, represents Israel. The -Bible uses three trees to represent Israel at different periods of her -history, and in different aspects of her responsibility. - -“The Old Testament uses the vine as the symbol of Israel, the Gospels the -fig, and the Epistles the olive. At your leisure, friends, if you have -never studied this, do so. You will not be puzzled much over the blasting -of the barren fig-tree when you have made a study of the whole of this -subject, because you will see that it was parabolic of God’s judgment on -the unfruitful Jewish race. - -“Now, with this key of interpretation before us, how pointed becomes this -first sign of the return of our Lord. ‘When,’ He says, ‘the fig-tree -putteth forth her leaves’—when the Jewish nation shows signs of a revival -of national life and vitality,—‘then know that the coming of the Lord -draweth nigh.’ - -“The careful reader of the daily press, even though not a Christian, -ought to have long ago been awakened to the startling fact that, after -thousands of years, the national life of Israel is awakening. The Jew is -returning to his own land—Palestine. - -“Only a year or two ago the world was electrified by hearing of the -formation of that wonderful Zionist movement. How it has spread and -grown! And how, ever since, the increasing thousands have been flocking -back to Palestine! There are now nearly three times the number of Jews -in and around Jerusalem, that there were after the return from the -Babylonish captivity. Agricultural settlements are extending all over the -land. Vineyards and olive-grounds are springing up everywhere. - -“Now note a remarkable fulfillment of prophecy. Turn to Isaiah xvii. 10, -11: ‘Therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with -strange slips. In the day thou shalt make thy plant to grow, and in the -morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish; but the harvest shall be a -heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.’ - -“In the early months of eighteen-ninety-four the Jews ordered two -million vine-slips from America, which they planted in Palestine. There -is the fulfillment of the first part of that prophecy, and if we are -justified in believing, as we think we are, that the return of the Lord -is imminent, then, as the tribulation will doubtless immediately follow -that return, and of the taking out of the Church from the world, then the -great gathering in of the harvest of those vines will be in ‘the day of -grief and of desperate sorrow.’ - -“Now, let me read to you, friends, an extract from the testimony of an -expert, long resident in Palestine: - -“‘There is not the shadow of a doubt,’ he writes, ‘as to the entire -changing of the climate of the land here (Palestine). The former and -latter rains are becoming the regular order of the seasons, and this is -doubtless due (physically, I mean) to the fact that the new colonists are -planting trees everywhere where they settle. The land, for thousands of -years, has been denuded of trees, so that there was nothing to attract -the clouds, etc. - -“‘Comparing the rainfall for the last five years, I find that there -has been about as much rain in April as in March; whereas, comparing -five earlier years, from 1880-85, I find that the rainfall in April was -considerably less than in March, and if we go back farther still, we find -that rain in April was almost unknown. - -“‘Thus God is preparing the land for the people. The people, too, are -being prepared for the land. The day is fast approaching when ‘the Lord -will arise and have mercy upon Zion.’ - -“I need hardly, I think, tell you what even the secular press has -been giving some most striking articles about quite recently,—namely, -the quiet preparation on the part of the Jews of everything for the -rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem. - -“I see, by the lighting up of your faces, that you are familiar with the -fact that gates, pillars, marbles, ornaments, and all else requisite -for the immediate building of the new temple are practically complete, -and only await the evacuation of the hideous Mohamedan, with all his -abominations, from Jerusalem, to be hurried to the site of the old -temple, and to be reared, a new temple to Jehovah, by the Jew. Any day, -Turkey—‘the sick man of the East’—in desperate straits for money, may -sell Palestine to the Jews. - -“The Jews are to return to their land in unbelief of Christ being the -Messiah. They will build their temple, reorganize the old elaborate -services, the lamb will be slain again ‘between the two evenings,’ -and—but all else of this time belongs to another address. What we have to -see this afternoon is that the fig-tree—the Jewish nation—is budding, and -to hear Jesus Christ saying to us, ‘When ye see all these things, know -that He is near, even at the doors.’ - -“Another sign of the return of our Lord is to be the world-wide -preaching of the Gospel. Now, in this connection, let me give a word of -correction of a common error on this point. - -“The Bible nowhere gives a hint that the world is to be converted before -the return of the Lord for His Church. As a matter of fact, the world—the -times—are to grow worse and worse; more polished, more cultured, -cleverer, better educated, yet grosser in soul, falser in worship. The -bulk of the Church shall have the form of godliness, but deny the power. - -“Men shall be ‘lovers of their own selves’—who can deny that selfishness -is not a crowning sin of this age?—‘covetous’—look at the heaping -up of riches, at the cost of the peace, the honour, the very blood -of others,—‘incontinent’—the increase in our divorce court cases is -alarming, disgusting,—‘lovers of pleasure’—the whole nation has run mad -on pleasures. - -“I need not enlarge further on this side of the subject, save to repeat -that the Word of God is most plain and emphatic on this point, that the -return of our Lord is to be marked by a fearful declension from vital -godliness. But, with all this, there is to be a world-wide proclamation -of the truth of salvation in Jesus. Not necessarily that every individual -soul shall hear it, but that all nations, etc., shall have it preached to -them. - -“Now, in this connection, let me mention a fact that has deeply impressed -me. It is this, that the greatest reawakening in the hearts of individual -Christians in all the churches—England, America, the Colonies—as -testified to by all concerned, agrees, in time, with the awakening of -the Church of Christ to the special need of intercession for foreign -missions—namely, from 1873-75. - -“I must close for this afternoon, lest I weary you. We will, God -willing, come together again here on Tuesday at the same hour, and I -pray you all to be much in prayer for blessing on the attempt to open up -these wondrous truths, and pray also that the right kind of people may be -gathered in. Will you all work for this, as well as pray for it? Invite -people to the meetings. - -“Do either of you know any editors of a daily paper? If so, write to -such, draw attention to these expositions, urge your editors to come. Oh, -if only we could capture the daily press! What an extended pulpit, what a -far-reaching voice would our subject immediately possess! - -“I don’t quite know how far I ought to go on this line, but even as I -speak, it comes to me to ask you if any one here present is acquainted -with the evidently-gifted, open-minded editor of ‘The Courier.’ We have -all, of course, been struck by his own utterances from the ‘Prophet’s -Chamber’ column. Oh that he could be captured for Christ; then his paper -would doubtless be a clarion for his Lord!” - -Tom Hammond turned hot and cold. He trusted that no one had recognized -him. He would be glad to get away unrecognized. Yet he was not offended -by the speaker’s personal allusion to him. He felt that the major’s soul -rang true. - -“Before I close,” the major went on, “suffer me to read an extract from -the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine,’ of the year seventeen hundred and fifty-nine: - -“‘Mr. Urban,—Reading over chapter eleven, verse two, of Revelation, a -thought came to me that I had hit upon the meaning of it which I desire -you’ll publish in one of your future magazines. The verse runs thus: -“But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not, -for it is given to the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread under -foot forty and two months.” - -“‘Now, according to the Scriptural way of putting a day for a year, if -we multiply forty-two months by thirty (the number of days contained in -a Jewish month,) we have the time the Turks will reign over the Jews’ -country, and the city of Jerusalem—viz., 1,260; which, if we add to the -year of our Lord 636, when Jerusalem was taken by the Turks, we have -the year of our Lord 1896, near or about which time the Jews will be -reinstated in their own country and city, Jerusalem, again, which will be -about 137 years hence; and that the Turks are the Gentiles mentioned in -the above-quoted chapter and verse appears from their having that country -and city in possession about 1,123 years, and will continue to possess it -till the Omnipotent God, in His own time, bringeth this prophecy to its -full period.’ - -“This letter is signed ‘M. Forster,’ and is dated from ‘Bessborough, -October 24th, 1759.’ I have very little sympathy with those of our -brethren who are ever venting in speech and in print the exact dates -(as they declare) of the coming events surrounding the return of our -Lord, but I do believe (in spite of the somewhat hazy chronology at -our command) that the regarding of approximate times is perfectly -permissible, and the letter I have read you has some value when, taking -dates, etc., approximately, we remember that this letter was written -nearly a hundred and fifty years ago, and that 1896 was memorable for a -distinct movement towards the Holy Land. - -“So, I say, ‘the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. To myself and to every -Christian here, I would say, ‘May God help us to quicken all our hearts, -and purify all our lives, that we may not be ashamed at His coming.’ - -“And to any who are here (if such there be) who are not converted, may -God help you to seek His face, that you may not be ‘left,’ when He shall -suddenly, silently snatch away His Church out of this godless generation. -‘Left!’ - -“Think of what that will mean, unsaved friend, if you are here to-day. -Left! Left behind! When the Spirit of God will have been taken out of the -earth. When Satan will dwell on the earth—for, with the coming of Christ -into the air, Satan, ‘the prince of the power of the air,’ will have to -descend. - -“Christ and Satan can never live in the same realm. Oh, God, save anyone -here from being left—left behind, to come upon the unspeakable judgments -which will follow the taking out of the world of the Church! - - “Some husband, whose head was laid on his bed, - Throbbing with mad excess, - Awakes from that dream by the lightning gleam, - Alone in his last distress. - - “For the patient wife, who through each day’s life, - Watched and wept for his soul, - Is taken away, and no more shall pray, - For the judgment thunders roll. - - “And that thoughtless fair who breathed no prayer, - Oft as her husband knelt, - Shall find he is fled, and start from her bed - To feel as never she felt. - - “The children of day are summoned away; - Left are the children of night. - -“It is high time for us all to awake. God keep us awake and watching for -our Lord, for His precious name’s sake. Amen.” - -The murmured Amens rolled through the congregation like the deep surge of -a sea billow on a shingle shore. - -“Our time has gone, friends,” cried the major. “We will sing two verses -only of the closing hymn 410, the first and last verse. Sing straight -away.” - -Tom Hammond, wondered at it all much as ever, listened while the song -rang out: - - “When Jesus comes to reward His servants, - Whether it be noon or night, - Faithful to Him will He find us watching? - With our lamps all trimmed and bright? - - CHORUS. - - “Oh, can we say we are ready, brother? - Ready for the soul’s bright home? - Say, will He find you and me still watching, - Waiting, waiting, when the Lord shall come? - - “Blessed are those whom the Lord finds watching - In His glory they shall share: - If He shall come at the dawn or midnight, - Will He find us watching there?” - -Again the chorus rang out, and as Tom Hammond left the hall, the question -of it clung to him. It forced itself upon his brain; it groped about for -his heart; it clamoured to be hearkened to. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -HER CABIN COMPANION. - - -“There’ll be one other lady with you in your cabin, miss.” - -The berth-steward’s announcement in no way disconcerted Madge Finisterre. -She had had two cabin companions on the outward voyage. - -She was arranging her cabin necessaries when her fellow-traveller -entered. She was a wee, winsome girl, very fragile in appearance, with a -yearning sweetness in her great grey eyes, such as Madge had never seen -in any eyes before. With half-a-dozen words of exchanged greeting and a -very warm handshake, the pair became instant friends. - -By a strange but happy coincidence neither of them ever suffered from -sea-sickness, and from the first moment of the great liner’s departure -they became inseparable. - -As the vessel forged her way down Channel that evening, a glorious moon -shining down upon them, the two girls, arm-in-arm, paced the promenade -deck talking. The subject of the acute distress among the poor and -out-of-works in all the world’s great cities came up between them. - -“Oh, if only our Lord would come quickly!” cried the girl—Kate Harland -was her name. - -“What do you mean, Kate?” Madge’s voice was full of amazed wonder. - -“I mean that——” - -The fragile girl paused; then, glancing quickly up into Madge’s face, she -cried: - -“You love Jesus, of course, Madge? You are saved, dear, and looking for -His coming?” - -For an instant Madge was silent. Then, with a deep sigh, she replied: - -“Oh, me! I am afraid I am not saved, as you call it. Katie, dear, the -fact is——” - -She halted in her speech. She did not know how to put into words all that -her friend’s question had aroused within her. - -While she halted thus, the girl at her side put her arms about her, -clasping her with a kind of yearning—an “I will not let you go” kind of -clasp—as she cried, softly: - -“Oh, my darling, you must not lie down to-night until you know you are -Christ’s. Then—then—after that, nothing can ever matter. Come weal, come -woe, come life, come death, all is well!” - - * * * * * - -It was past midnight before the two girls climbed into their berths, but -by that time Madge Finisterre knew that she had passed from death into -life. - -Before the vessel reached New York she had learned something of the truth -of the near return of the Lord. - -On the quay, when they landed, the two girls bade each other a sorrowful -farewell. - -“We shall meet in heaven, Katie, if nevermore on earth,” sobbed Madge. - -“In the air, my darling,” replied the other. “Do not let us lose sight of -that. When our Lord shall come, - - ‘Loved ones shall meet in a joyful surprise, - Caught up together to Him in the skies, - When Jesus shall come once again.’” - -Kate Harland’s friends, who had travelled to meet her from Denver, -carried her off, and Madge took the car to the Central. - -One hour later she boarded the train and began the last lap of her long -journey. - -Her spirits rose higher every moment. She had conceived a very bold idea, -and she was going to carry it through after her own fashion. She sent no -message of warning of her coming, as this would spoil her little plot. - -Her eyes rested delightedly upon every place she passed. At Garrisons, -where the train waited a few minutes, she caught a glimpse of the father -of the man whom she was hurrying to meet. - -The white-haired old father lived at Garrisons, and was a preacher of -the Gospel, like his son. He was leaving the depot as her train pulled -up. She easily recognized him, because several times during his son’s -pastorate at Balhang he had been to see him, staying a week at a time, -and preaching once on the Sunday on each occasion. - -At Duchess Junction she had to change trains. To her joy, she met no one -from Balhang; there was not a soul at the depot whom she even knew by -sight. - -Just before her train reached Balhang she donned a thick brown gauze -veil. No one could see her face through this to recognize it. There -would be nothing to detain her at the depot, for her baggage was all -“expressed.” - -The train stopped; she alighted. Several people peered hard at her, the -depot manager especially, as he took her check, but no one recognized -her. She passed on. Twenty yards from the depot she met Judge Anstey. - -She stopped him with a “Good day, Judge; can I speak with you?” - -“Certainly, madam,” the official replied genially. - -“Come aside, Judge,” she whispered. “I don’t want anyone to recognize me, -or to hear what I am saying to you, should people pass.” - -As he moved on by her side in the direction she wished, she whispered: - -“I have put on this thick veil, Judge, so as not to be recognized. I am -Madge Finisterre.” - -“Du say!” he gasped. “I knew the voice, but could not recall whose it -was. I hadn’t heard a breath of your coming home, Miss Madge.” - -“I let no one, not even mumma and poppa, know that I was coming,” she -replied. “The fact is, Judge——” - -She was glad, as she prepared to take him into her confidence, that the -thick veil would hide the hot colour that she felt leaped into her face. - -“Momma wrote me,” she went on, “that the pastor was very sick, and -that the doctor didn’t understand his case. I only got the letter last -Saturday morning. The boat was to start that day at two; but I caught it, -for I knew that would cure the pastor.” - -She felt how fiercely the blushes burned in her cheeks, but, assured that -he could not see them, she went on: - -“Just before I started for Europe, Judge, pastor told me he loved me, and -asked me to be his wife——” - -She watched the amused amaze leap into the Judge’s face, and smiled -herself at his low whistle. - -“I told him,” she continued, “I could make him no definite promise, as I -was not quite sure of myself; but that, when I was, I would not wait for -him to ask me again—I would come and tell him. I am going straight to him -now, Judge, and I want you to give me a clear quarter of an hour’s start. -While I am gone to fix him up and to make him happy, I want you to go -’long to mumma and poppa, and bring them right along with you, and marry -me and pastor as soon as you git up to us. So-long for a quarter of an -hour.” - -Without another word she moved swiftly away. - -“She’s tropical!” he laughed, as he saw her making for Mrs. Keller’s, -where the pastor boarded. - - * * * * * - -The French windows of the pastor’s sitting-room were open, for the day -was like a spring one. Madge moved quickly across the patch of grass, -mounted the stoop, and peered in. - -In a large rocker, looking very frail and ill, the young pastor was lying -back with his eyes closed. - -Madge felt her eyes fill with tears. She lifted the disguising veil, and -wiped the salt drops away. She did not lower her veil again, but with a -little glad cry of— - -“Homer, dear love!” she crossed the threshold, and dropped on her knees -by his side, flung her arms around his neck, and laid her hot lips to his. - -It was like a dream to him—a wondrous, delicious dream. His thin arms -clasped her. His kisses were rained upon her, but at first he found no -words to say. Between their passionately-exchanged kisses she poured out, -in rapid, caress-punctured speech, how she came to be there. - -“I have not seen mumma or poppa yet,” she explained; “but I met Judge -Anstey down by the depot. I have sent him home for mumma and poppa; they -will be here in no time now. The Judge will come with them, and will -marry us right off, dear. For, say, you do want some nursing.” - -He found his voice at last, declared that her coming, her first kiss, had -made him strong; that he would need no nursing now that she had come. -Getting on to his feet, he gathered her into his arms, and rained fresh -kisses upon her lips, her cheeks, her brow, her eyes. - -She managed to whisper the good news, “I have found Jesus, dear, or He -found me, and now——” - -A sound of voices and of hurrying steps outside checked her. She had only -time to tear herself from his arms when her mother and father reached her -side. - -An hour later, when the Judge had been and gone again, Madge Finisterre -was the wife of the pastor. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -CASTING A SHOE. - - -It was two hours after midnight when Tom Hammond was free at last. But -he did not go to bed. His soul was disturbed. What he had heard at the -major’s meeting had stirred a myriad disquieting thoughts within him, and -now that he was clear to do it, he shut himself up alone with a Bible, -and began to go over every point of the major’s address. He had taken -copious notes in shorthand, paying especial attention to the texts quoted -and referred to. - -At the end of an hour he looked up from his Bible. There was a wondering -amaze in his eyes, a strange, perplexed knitting of his brows. - -“It is all most marvellous!” he murmured. “There is not a flaw or hitch -anywhere in the major’s statements or reasoning. The Scriptures prove, to -the hilt, every word that he uttered.” - -He smiled to himself as, rising to his feet, he said aloud, - -“I should not sleep if I went to bed; I will go out.” - -There are ways of getting into some of the London parks before the -regulation hour for opening the gates. Tom Hammond had often found a way -to forestall the park-opener. - -Ten minutes after leaving his chambers he was inside the park he loved -best. Everything was eerily still and silent. The calm suited his mood. -He wanted to feel, as well as to be, absolutely alone. He had his -desire. There had been a thick mist over London overnight, but the -atmosphere was as clear as a bell now. The air was as balmy as a morning -in May or September. - -There was a faint light from the stars that stabbed the deep violet sky. -He moved slowly, thoughtfully, through paths as familiar to him as the -rooms he occupied at home. - -“And the Christ might come to-day!” he mused. “As Major H—— showed -plainly from the Bible, there is no other prophetic event to transpire -before His coming.” - -Almost unconsciously he paused in his walking. - -“If,” he cried softly, a certain fearsomeness in his voice, “if He came -to-day, came now, what about me? Where should I come in?” - -He recalled the fact that, according to the major’s showing, he, Tom -Hammond, was quite unprepared for Christ’s coming, because he was still -unsaved. He shivered slightly as the thought of his unpreparedness came -to him. - -With the flashing swiftness of one of memory’s freaks, there leaped into -his mind some lines of Charles Wesley’s. He had written them, a day or -two before, in illustration of a certain statement in an article on -hymnology. They had not borne any message to his soul then, but now they -seemed like the voicing of his own inmost thoughts. - -He walked slowly on, the words falling from his lips in half-uttered -notes. - - “And am I only born to die? - And must I suddenly comply - With nature’s stern decree? - What after death for me remains— - Celestial joys, or bitter pains, - To all eternity? - - “No room for mirth or trifling here, - For worldly hope, or worldly fear, - If life so soon is gone— - If now the Judge is at the door, - And all mankind must stand before - The inexorable throne! - - “Nothing is worth a thought beneath, - But how I may escape the death - That never, never dies— - How make my own election sure, - And, when I fail on earth, secure - A mansion in the skies.” - -“There was something inspiring, something helpful, in the last verse,” he -mused, “but, for the life of me, I cannot recall it.” - -The piping note of a robin from a clump of bush trees close by broke into -his reverie. He lifted his head sharply and looked around, then upwards. -The stars had paled in the violet dome above him. Somewhere near, ahead -of him, was a piece of ornamental water. He caught a glimpse of it -between the trees. - -“Pip-pip!” came again from the robin’s throat. He remembered Charles Fox, -and said softly aloud: - - “Came forward to be seen, - My little bright-eyed fellow, - And an honest one as well O - In thy suit of olive green, - With red-orange vest between, - And small touching voice so mellow.” - -The bird suddenly flew across his path, dropped upon a low piece of iron -fencing, glanced askance at him, then darted to where a morning meal -peeped out of the damp sod. - -Two or three other low, sleepy bird-notes followed, then the water-fowl -began their discordant quacking. The tremulous flutenotes of a thrush -made rich music on the morning air. - -The stars faded out of sight. The cold grey light of dawning day moved -into the eastern horizon. The smell of the earth grew rank. The air grew -keener. The east slowly reddened. Roofs and towers of houses and churches -grew up slowly, and grey amid the cold light of the dawn. He turned to -face the spot where he knew the great clock-tower of Westminster could -be seen. A light burned high aloft in the tower, telling that England’s -legislators were still in session. - -Slowly, thoughtfully, he turned back to walk home. - -“If Christ came at this instant,” he mused, “how many of those Commoners -and Peers would be ready to meet Him? And what of the teeming millions of -this mighty city? God help us all! What blind fools we are!” - - * * * * * - -In spite of his night vigil Tom Hammond was in his office at his usual -hour. He had been there about an hour when there came a short, sharp rap -on the panel of his room-door. In response to his “Come in!” Joyce, the -drunken reporter lurched in. In some way he had contrived to elude those -on duty in the enquiry-office. - -He was the worse for drink, and in response to Hammond’s sharp queries: - -“What do you want? How came you here unannounced?” he began to “beg the -loan of five shillings.” - -“Not a copper!” cried Hammond. - -Joyce whined for it. - -Hammond refused more sharply. - -The drunken wretch cringed, whimpered for “just ’arf-a-crown.” - -The fellow began to bluster, then to threaten. - -“If you don’t leave this room, I’ll hurl you out,” cried Hammond, “and -give you in custody of the police.” - -The drunken beast straightened his limp form as well as he was able, as -he hiccoughed: - -“All rightsh, Tom Ham’n’d. Every dawg hash hish day. You’re havin’ yoursh -now, all rightsh—all rightsh,—but I’ll—hic—do fur yer; I’ll—hic—ruin yer; -I’ll——” - -Tom Hammond darted from his place by the table. The next instant he would -have put his threat of “hurling out” into execution, but the drunken -braggart did not wait for him, for he shuffled out of the room, cursing -hideously. - -As the door closed upon him, Tom Hammond went across to the window, and -flung up the lower sashes, and drew down the upper ones. From a drawer -in a cabinet he took a strip of scented joss-paper, and lit it. The -sandal-like perfume spread instantly through all the room. - -“Faugh!” he muttered. “The whole place seems foul after his presence.” - -He turned to his wash-stand, rolled back the polished top, and washed his -hands. - -“I’ll see Ralph,” he muttered, as he dried his hands “and go out for a -couple of hours. I’ll go and see Cohen.” - -It was curious how often he found excuse to visit the Jew. - -A quarter of an hour later he drove up to the house of Cohen. He found -him, with his wife and Zillah, on the point of starting for their -synagogue. - -“One may live a life-time, as a Jew, in this country,” Cohen explained, -“and never see the ceremony that is about to take place in our synagogue. -It is what is known in our religion as ‘Chalitza.’ Will you go with us, -Mr. Hammond?” - -Tom Hammond’s eyes met Zillah’s. Then he promptly said— - -“Yes” to the Jew’s question. - -“Right, then! We can explain about the ceremony as we go!” Cohen said, -and the quartette left the house. - -There was not much time for explanation, but what Tom Hammond heard -convinced him that he was a fortunate journalist that day. He had no -opportunity of talking with Zillah, but he found his heart beating with a -strange wildness whenever his eyes met hers—and they frequently met. - -At the door of the synagogue the party had to separate, the two women -going one way, Cohen and Hammond another. The building was filling very -fast. Presently it was packed to suffocation. - -It was Tom Hammond’s first sight of a Jewish congregation in a synagogue. -It amazed him. The hatted men and bewigged women—these latter sat behind -a grille. The gorgeousness of much of the female finery. The curious -“praying shawls”—the “Talith” of the men. - -Suddenly a Rabbi began to intone the opening words of the service, -reading from the roll of the law, “The Holy Scroll:” “If brethren dwell -together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead -shall not marry without unto a stranger; her husband’s brother shall take -her to wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.... And -if the man like not to take his brother’s wife, then let his brother’s -wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband’s brother -refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not -perform the duty of my husband’s brother. - -“Then the elder of the city shall call the man, and speak unto him: and -if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her; - -“Then shall his brother’s wife come unto him in the presence of the -elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and shall spit in his face, -and shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done unto that man that will -not build up his brother’s house.’ - -“And his name shall be called in Israel, ‘the house of him that hath his -shoe loosed’.” - -The service was all very curious in the eyes of Tom Hammond. He followed -every item of it with the closest, most interested attention. Presently -the parties specially concerned mounted the platform. This platform was -backed with a huge square frame covered with black cloth. This was meant -to symbolize mourning for the dead husband. Three tall candle-sticks held -lighted candles, their flames looking weird and sickly in the daylight. - -The Rabbi stooped before the brother-in-law, and took off his right shoe -and sock. Another official washed the foot, wiped it with a towel, and -pared the toe-nails. - -A soft white shoe, made specially for the occasion, was then taken by the -rabbi, put on to the bare foot of the man, and laced up very tightly, the -long ends of the lace being twisted round the ankle and knotted securely. - -Then there followed a seemingly interminable string of questions, put by -the rabbi, and answered by the brother-in-law. The catechism culminated -in a few chief questions such as: - -“Do you wish to marry this woman?” - -“I do not,” replied the brother-in-law. - -“For what reason?” - -“I am already married; my wife is living, and the law of the land we -live in does not permit my having more than one wife.” - -The reply rang clear and strong through the silent building, and the hush -seemed to deepen as the rabbi asked, - -“Will you give this woman Chalitza?” - -“Certainly I will, if she wishes it,” replied the brother-in-law. - -Turning to the woman, the rabbi asked, “Do you wish to receive Chalitza?” - -Tom Hammond saw how the light of a great eagerness leaped into the eyes -of the beautiful Jewess, and how her face glowed with the warmth of a -sudden colour, as she replied, - -“I do wish for Chalitza, for I desire to marry again.” - -The rabbi’s assistant gave her certain instructions, and she knelt before -her brother-in-law, and with the thumb and finger of her right hand—she -dare not use the left, however difficult her task might prove,—she began -untying the knots in the lace fastenings around the ankle. - -It was no child’s play to unfasten the shoe. The knots had been drawn -very tight; but she was very determined, and presently a deep sigh of -relief broke from the breathless, watching congregation, as, taking the -shoe from the man’s foot, she flung it sharply down, twice, upon the -floor. - -She rose now to her feet to complete the ceremony. The law of spitting -in the face of the man had been modified to meet the views of a day less -gross than when it was carried out in full coarseness. - -The brother-in-law took a couple of paces backwards, and the beautiful -widow spat on the place he had stood a moment before. - -Then she faced the great congregation. Her eyes travelled straight to the -face of the man she loved, whom she was shortly to marry. Her eyes danced -with excitement, her cheeks were rosy with colour, her whole face was -full of an indescribable rapture, as she cried: - -“I am free!” - -“True, sister, you are free!” the brother-in-law responded. - -The rabbi moved swiftly to her side, and, looking into her face, said: - -“O woman of Israel, you are free!” - -With a shout that reminded Tom Hammond of the shout, “He is risen!” -at the Easter service in the Greek churches of Russia, the excited, -perspiring congregation cried: “Woman, you are free!” - -A moment or two later the service concluded, and the building emptied. -Walking homeward by Hammond’s side, Cohen said, “Only the most orthodox -of Jews would dream of using Chalitza to free themselves for re-marrying. -This is the only case I have personally known. By-the-bye, Mr. Hammond, -it is said that about the middle of the eighteenth century that one of -the Rothschild widows sought Chalitza, but failed to untie the lace of -the shoe, and was disqualified from re-marrying.” - -Cohen’s wife had stopped to speak to some friends. The young Jew joined -her. Tom Hammond found himself moving forward by Zillah’s side. - -“What an extraordinary service that was, Miss Robart!” he said. - -“It was!” she glanced almost shyly away from him, for, unknown to himself -his eyes were full of the warmest admiration. - -“Do you think, Miss Robart,” he went on, “if you were situated as was -that beautiful woman whom we have just seen freed from the Mosaic bond, -that you would have braved the Chalitza ceremony, or would you have taken -advantage of the English law and——” - -She lifted her great, black, lustrous eyes to his in a sudden gaze of -utter frankness, as, interrupting him, she cried: - -“I would certainly not marry any man, save one whom I could wholly revere -and love!” - -“Happy the man whom you shall thus honour, Miss Robart!” - -Tom Hammond barely whispered the words, and she was not wholly sure that -he meant them for her ears. She did not respond in any way. But she was -conscious that his gaze was fixed upon her. She was equally conscious -that she was blushing furiously. - -Perhaps it was to give her a chance of recovering herself, that his next -question was on quite a different topic. - -“Are you, Miss Robart,” he said, “wholly wedded to the Jewish faith? Do -you believe, for instance, that Jesus, the Nazarene, was an impostor?” - -He heard the catch that came into her throat. Then, with a -half-frightened look around, she lifted her melting eyes to his, as she -said, “I can trust you, Mr. Hammond, I know. You will keep my confidence, -if I give it to you?” - -His eyes answered her, and she went on. - -“I have not dared to breathe a word of it to anyone, not even to my good -brother-in-law Abraham, but I am learning to love the Christ.” - -Her face was filled with a holy light, her cheeks glowed with excitement, -as she went on: - -“I see how the prophecies of our forefathers—Isaiah especially—were all -literally fulfilled in the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth. I see, -too, that when next He comes, it will not be as our race supposes, as the -Messiah to the Jews, but He will come in the air, and——” - -She glanced sharply round. Some instinct told her her friends were coming. - -“No more now,” she whispered. “I will tell you more another time. I -shall myself know more, to-night. I go twice a week to a mission-room at -Spitalfields——” - -“What time?” he asked eagerly. - -“Seven,” she replied, not realizing the eagerness of his tone. - -“Where is this place?” he went on. - -She had just time to tell him. When Cohen and his wife came up, husband -and wife began talking together. Zillah appeared to listen, but in -reality she heard nothing of what they were saying. For a strange thing -had happened. - -She had dropped her hand by her side as the Cohens had rejoined them, and -had suddenly found her fingers clasped in Hammond’s hand. - -What did it mean? she wondered. They had met often of late. She had read -an unmistakable ardency in his eyes very often, when her glance met his. -And, deep in her own heart, she knew that all the woman-love she would -ever have to give a man she had unconsciously given to him. Was this -sudden secret handclasp of his a silent expression of love on his part, -or was it meant merely as an assurance of sympathy in the matter of her -new faith? - -She could not be sure which it was, but she let her plump fingers give -a little pressure of response. How did he translate this response? she -wondered. She had no means of deciding, save that her heart leaped wildly -in a tumultuous delight as she felt how he literally gripped her fingers -in a closer, warmer clasp. - -They had reached the house by this time. Hammond would not go in. He -shook hands, in parting, with each, but his hold upon Zillah’s hand was -longer than on the others. He pressed the fingers meaningly, and his eyes -held an ardency that gave a new tumult to her heart. - -As she passed into the house she whispered to herself, “Will he be at -Spitalfields to-night?” - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -TOLD IN A CAB. - - -A quarter of an hour before the time Zillah had given him, Tom Hammond -was waiting near the “Mission Hall for Jews,” where the meeting was to be -held. He was anxious that she should not know of his proximity, so kept -out of sight,—there were many possibilities of this among the various -stalls in the gutter-way. - -Presently he saw her coming, and the light of a glad admiration leaped -into his eyes. “What a superb face and figure she has!” he mused. “What a -perfect queen of a woman she is!” - -From behind a whelk-stall he watched her cross over to the door of the -Hall. Here she paused a moment, and glanced around. - -“I believe she half expected to see me somewhere near!” he murmured to -himself. - -She entered the Hall. By the time her head was bowed in prayer, he had -entered, and had taken a seat on the last form, the fourth behind hers. -When she first raised her head from her silent prayer, she looked around -and backward. In her heart she was hoping he would be there. If he had -not been bending in prayer, she must have seen him. After that she turned -no more, the service soon occupied all her thoughts. - -He too became utterly absorbed by the service, of which the address -was the chief feature. It was largely expository, and from the first -utterance of the speaker, it riveted Tom Hammond’s attention. - -The speaker, himself a converted Jew, took as his text Deut. xxi. 22, 23. - -“If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and is sentenced to -death, and thou hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not remain all night -upon the tree, but, burying, thou shalt bury him on that day (because he -who is hanged is accursed of God).” - -“Now, brethren,” the speaker went on, “as far as I have been able to -discover, in all the Hebrew records I have been able to consult, and in -all the histories of our race, I have not found a single reference to a -Hebrew official hanging of a criminal on a tree. To what, then, does this -verse refer, and why is it placed on Jehovah’s statute-book?” - -For a few moments he appealed to his Jewish hearers on points peculiarly -Hebraic. Then presently he said, - -“Now let us see if the New Testament will shed any light upon this.” - -Turning rapidly the leaves of his Bible, he went on: “There is a book in -the Christian Scriptures known as the Epistle to the Galatians which, -in the tenth verse of the third chapter, repeats our own word from -Deuteronomy: - -“‘Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written -in the Book of the Law to do them,’ and in the thirteenth verse says, -‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse -for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.’ - -“We all, brethren, as the sons of Abraham, believe that our father -David’s Psalm beginning, ‘My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?’ was -never written out of his own experience, but was prophetic of some other -Person. Now, let me quote you some of the words of that Psalm.” - -In clear, succinct language, the speaker, quoting verse after verse of -the Psalm, showed how literally the descriptions fitted into a death -by crucifixion. Referring to the Gospel narratives of the death on the -cross, he showed how they also fitted in with the description of Christ’s -death, and how Christ actually took upon His dying lips the cry of the -Psalm, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” - -Then with wondrous clearness he referred to parts of Isaiah liii., and, -continuing his theme, showed that it was evident that only one particular -type of death could have atoned for the sin of the human race, a death -that would render the dying one accursed of the Almighty. The only death -that would fully carry out that condition was crucifixion. - -“Our race waited for the Messiah,” he cried, “and He came. Our prophet -Micah said, ‘Yet thou, O Bethlehem-Ephratah, little as thou art amidst -the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall proceed from Me, One who is -to be ruler in Israel!” - -“The Christ was born at the only time in the world’s history when -He could have been executed on a tree—crucified. At a time when the -Roman—crucifixion was a Roman punishment—swayed our beloved land of -Jewry. So that Paul, the great Jew, chosen of God to be apostle to the -Gentiles, wrote after the crucifixion of Jesus, the Nazarene, ‘According -to the time, Christ died.’” - -For some minutes the speaker appealed to his Jewish hearers with a -wonderful power. Then finally addressing not only the Jews, but any -Gentiles who might be present, he cried: - -“We must know the meaning of sin, brethren, before we can understand -the mystery of a crucified Christ. A beheaded, a stoned Christ, could -not have atoned for a guilty world, but only a God-cursed death, a -tree-cursed death could have done this. - -“And Christ was cursed for us—He who knew no curse of His own. Ah! -beloved, the guilt of the human race is the key to the cross. - -“Times change, customs change, but sin remains, sin is ever the same, and -only a living, personal trust in the crucified Christ can ever deliver -the unsaved sinner from the wrath of God which abideth on him.” - -The address closed. Tom Hammond awoke from his intense absorption of -soul. He had long since utterly forgotten Zillah. He had seen only -himself, at first, his own sin, and that his sin had nailed Christ to the -cross. Then, better still, he saw the Christ. - -Only a few nights before he had paused to watch a Salvation Army -open-air meeting. The girl-officer in charge of the corps had announced -thirty-eight as the number of the hymn they would sing, and prefaced the -reading of the first verse by saying: - -“This hymn was written by an ex-drunkard—an ex-blasphemer. His name was -Newton—drunken Jack Newton, he was often called by his mates, and by -others who knew him. He was a sailor, on a ship trading to the African -coast, at the time when his soul was aroused to its danger. He was in -agony, not knowing what to do to get rest and peace. - -“One night he was keeping anchor-watch. He was alone on the deck, the -night was dark and eerie. His sins troubled him. All that he had heard -of the crucified Christ—whom he had so often blasphemed—swept into his -soul, and he groaned in the misery of his sin-convicted state. - -“Suddenly he paused in his deck-pacing, and looked up. To his fevered -imagination, the yard which crossed the mast high up above his head -appeared like a mighty cross, and it was remembering this, with all the -soul-experience of that night, that in after years, when he became a -preacher of the gospel, and a noted divine, Dr. John Newton wrote: - - “I saw One hanging on a tree - In agonies and blood, - Who fixed His dying eyes on me, - As near the cross I stood. - ‘A second look He gave, which said, - “I freely all forgive - My blood was for thy ransom paid, - I die that thou may’st live.’”” - -Recalling these words now, Tom Hammond’s soul received the great -Revelation. He heard no word of the closing hymn and prayer, but passed -out into the open air a new man in Christ. - -The mission-leader had given an invitation to any who would like to be -helped in soul matters to remain behind. Tom Hammond noticed that Zillah -lingered. - -It was half-an-hour before she came out. Tom Hammond had lived a -life-time of wonder in the thirty minutes. - -Like one in a delicious dream Zillah walked on a few yards. Suddenly she -became aware of Tom Hammond’s presence at her side. - -“Zillah!” - -He gave her no other word of greeting. It was the first time he had ever -called the young girl by her first name. He took her hand, and drew it -through his arm. She barely noticed the tender action, for her soul was -rioting in a new-found joy, and she poured out, in a few sentences, all -the story of her supreme trust in Christ the Nazarene. - -His voice was hoarse with many emotions, as he said, - -“I, too, Zillah, have to-night seen Jesus Christ dying for my sin, and -have taken Him for my own personal Saviour!” - -Suddenly she realized how closely he was holding her to his side, how -tight was the clasp of his hand upon hers. She looked up into his face -to express her joy at his new-found faith. Their eyes met. A new meaning -flashed in their exchanged glances. - -A four-wheeled cab moved slowly along in the gutter-way, the driver -uttered a low “Keb, keb!” - -Tom Hammond seized the opportune offer, and whispered, - -“Let us take a cab, Zillah. I have something to say to you which I must -say to-night.” - -Before scarcely she realized it, she was seated by his side in the cab. - -There is a moment in every woman’s life when her heart warns her of the -coming of the great event in that life, when love is to be offered to her -by the only man who has ever loomed large enough in her consciousness to -be able to affect her existence. - -This moment had suddenly unexpectedly come to Zillah Robart. - -Her heart warned her that the crisis was upon her. She had done nothing -to precipitate it. It had met her, drawn her aside, and had shut her up -in the semi-darkness of this vehicle with the only man she could ever -love. - -The cab rattled over the cobbles of that wide East-end thoroughfare, past -the throngs of moving pedestrians, though, to her consciousness, the -whole wide world consisted of but one man—the man at her side. - -He had secured her hand, he held it in his strong, hot clasp. She held -her breath in a strange, expectant ecstasy. Then the inevitable came. She -felt its coming. - -Tom Hammond was drawing her closer to himself. She was yielding to that -drawing. She caught her breath again, and as she did so a rush of strange -tears filled her eyes. - -“Zillah!” his voice was hoarse and deep. - -She realized the meaning of the hoarseness. She knew by her own feeling -that the depth and intensity of his voice was due to the emotion that -filled him. She knew she would have found herself voiceless at that -moment had she tried to speak. - -“I love you, my darling!” he went on. “I have loved you from the first -instant I met you. You have felt it, known it, dear. Have you not?” - -She tried to speak, her lips moved, but no sound came from them. But she -looked into his eyes, and he read his answer. - -With a sweeping gesture of passionate love he gathered her into his arms -and showered kisses upon her lips, her cheeks, her forehead, her hair. - -She lay like a stunned thing in his arms. Her joy was almost greater than -she could bear. Then as his hot lips sought hers again, she awoke from -her semi-trance of ecstasy, and with a little sob she flung her arms -upwards and clasped them about his neck, crying, - -“Love you, my darling? Love seems too poor a word to express my feeling, -for God knows that, save my Lord Jesus, to whom to-night I have fully -yielded, you are all my life.” - -Her voice was stifled with a little rush of tears. Where she lay on his -breast, he felt how all her frame quivered. - -“And you will be mine, dear Zillah—and soon?” His eyes burned into hers, -asking for an answer as loudly as his lips. - -She did not answer him for a moment. Her heart beat with a tumultuous -gladness, and her brain throbbed with the wonder of what she conceived to -be the honour that had come to her. Wondering incredulity mingled with -the rapturous ecstasy that filled her. - -“But you are so great—so——” She paused, she could find no words to -express all that prospective wifedom to him appeared to her. - -He smiled down into her eyes. Her loveliness seemed to him greater than -ever before. - -“You seem like a king to me!” she gasped at last. - -“You, Zillah,” he smiled, “do not seem, you are, a queen to me. Say, -darling, the one word that shall fill all my soul with delight—say that -you will be mine—and soon, very soon!” - -“I will.” - -There was the intensity of a mighty love in her utterance of the two -words. - -He gathered her to himself in an even closer embrace, and spent his -kisses on her lips. - -The flush of pride, of love, burned deeper in her face. - -“Oh, why is it given to me to have such bliss?” she murmured. - -The words were low-breathed; they sounded like a gasping sigh of delight -more than a voiced utterance. - -For a moment, clasped tightly in his arms, she was silent, and he -uttered no word. Presently he whispered, - -“Will it give you joy, I wonder, my darling, to know that I have been -a man free of all woman’s love before? I have seen many women, in many -lands, the loveliest of the earth—though none so lovely as you, my -sweetheart. It is no egotism on my part, either, to say that many women -have sought my love by their smiles and favour. But none ever won a word -of love or response from me.” - -The cab was passing a great central light in the heart of a junction of -four roads. Her eyes, full of a great rapture, sought his. His were fixed -upon her face, and filled with a love so great that again she caught her -breath in wonder. - -“But you, my Zillah!” He caught her close to himself again, and bending -his head, let his lips cling to hers, “But you, darling!” he continued, -“have been to me all that the heart of man could ever wish for, from the -first moment I met you. May God give us a long life together, dearest, -and make us (with our new-born faith in Him) to be the best, the holiest -help-meets, the one to the other, that this world has ever known.” - -Where she lay in his arms, he felt her tremble with the intensity of her -joy. As he looked down into the deep, dreamy lustrousness of her eyes, -he saw how they were full of a far-off look, as though she was picturing -that united future of which he had spoken. - -Perhaps he read that look in her eyes aright. Then, as he watched her, he -saw how the colour deepened in her face. She slowly, proudly, yet with a -glad frankness, lifted herself in his arms until, in a tender, passionate -caress, her lips rested upon his in the first spontaneous kiss she had -given him. - -“If the Christ, to whom we have given ourselves to-night, should tarry,” -she whispered, “and we are spared to dwell together on earth as husband -and wife, dear Tom, may God answer all that prayer of yours abundantly.” - -The cab turned a corner sharply at that moment. He looked through the -window. They were within a few hundred yards of where he had given the -driver orders to stop. Zillah would have, on alighting, only the length -of a short street to traverse before reaching home, and he would take a -hansom and drive back to the office. But the intervening moments before -they would part were very precious, and love took unlimited toll in those -swift, fleeting moments. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -TOM HAMMOND REVIEWING. - - -It was the morning after Tom Hammond had found Christ, and had closed -with the great offer of redemption. He had scarcely slept for the joy of -the two loves that had so suddenly come into his life. - -During the sleepless hours, he had learned, for the first time in his -life, the true secret of prayer, and that even greater secret, that of -communion. - -With real prayer there is always a certain degree of communion, but real, -deep, soul-filling communion is more often found in seasons when the -communing one asks for nothing, but, silent before his or her God, the -sense of the Divine fills all the being, and if the lips utter any sound -it is the cry, “My Lord and my God!” - -Tom Hammond, reviewing all that God had revealed to him, learned in those -first hours of his new birth the secret of adoring communion with God. - -In the book of extracts he had been reading in the tube train at the -moment when he had first heard of Major H——’s coming address on the -Second Advent, he had come across one headed, “Frederick William Faber: -The Precious Blood—chap. iv.” He had at the time been considerably -impressed with the extract, though there was a certain note about it -which he had failed to understand. In the flush of the great revelation -that had come to his soul (in that little meeting at Spitalfields), he -now found the book, and re-read the extract: - -“I was upon the sea-shore; and my heart filled with love it knew not why. -Its happiness went out over the wide waters, and upon the unfettered -wind, and swelled up into the free dome of blue sky until it filled it. -The dawn lighted up the faces of the ivory cliffs, which the sun and sea -had been blanching for centuries of God’s unchanging love. The miles of -noiseless sands seemed vast, as if they were the floors of eternity. -Somehow, the daybreak was like eternity. The idea came over me of that -feeling of acceptance which so entrances the soul just judged and just -admitted into heaven. - -“‘To be saved!’ I said to myself, ‘to be saved!’ - -“Then the thoughts of all the things implied in salvation came in one -thought upon me; and I said: - -“‘This is the one grand joy of life;’ and I clapped my hands like a -child, and spoke to God aloud. But then there came many thoughts, all in -one thought, about the nature and manner of our salvation. To be saved -with such a salvation! - -“This was a grander joy, the second grand joy of life; and I tried to say -some lines of a hymn but the words were choked in my throat. The ebb was -sucking the sea down over the sand quite silently; and the cliffs were -whiter, and more day-like. Then there came many more thoughts all in one -thought, and I stood still without intending it. - -“To be saved by such a Saviour! This was the grandest joy of all, the -third grand joy of life; and it swallowed up the other joys; and after it -there could be on earth no higher joy. - -“I said nothing; but I looked at the sinking sea as it reddened in the -morning. Its great heart was throbbing in the calm; and methought I saw -the precious blood of Jesus in heaven, throbbing that hour with real -human love of me.” - -“Yes,” murmured Tom Hammond, “after all, to be saved by such a Saviour -is a greater, higher, holier thought than the mere knowledge that one is -saved, or of the realization of what that salvation comprises.” - -In every way that night was one never to be forgotten by Tom Hammond. He -needed, too, all the strength born of his new communion with God to meet -what awaited him with the coming of the new day’s daily papers. - -The paper whom whose staff he had been practically dismissed in our first -chapter (the editor of which was his bitterest enemy) had found how to -use “the glass stiletto.” - -Some of the most scurrilous paragraphs ever penned appeared in his -enemy’s columns that morning. It is true that the identity of the man -slandered (Tom Hammond) was veiled, but so thinly—so devilishly—that -every journalist, and a myriad other readers, would know against whom the -scurrilous utterances were hurled. - -Tom Hammond would not have been human if the reading of the paragraphs -had not hurt him. And he would not have been “partaker of the Divine -nature,” as he now was, if he had not found a balm in the committal of -his soreness to God. - -“That is the work of that fellow Joyce,” he told himself. - -Twenty-four hours before, if this utterance had had to have been made by -him, he would have said, - -“That beast Joyce!” But already, as a young soldier of Christ, the -promised watch was set upon his lips. In the strength of the two great -loves that had come into his life—the love of Christ and the love of -Zillah Robart—the scurrilous paragraphs affected him comparatively -little. - -When he had skimmed the papers, attended to his correspondence, and to -one or two other special items, he took pen and paper and began to write -to his betrothed. - -His pen flew over the smooth surface of the paper, but his thoughts were -even quicker than his pen. His whole being palpitated with love. It was -the love of his highest ideal. The love which he had sometimes dared to -hope might some day be his, but which he had scarcely dared to expect. - -The memory of his passing fancy for Madge Finisterre crossed his mind, -once, as he wrote. He paused with the pen poised in his fingers, and -smiled that he should ever have thought it possible that he was beginning -to love her. “I liked her, admired her,” he mused. “I enjoyed her frank, -open friendship, but love her—no, no. The word cannot be named in the -same breath as my feeling for Zillah.” - -He put his pen to the paper again, and poured out all the wealth of -the love of his heart to his beautiful betrothed. When he had finally -finished the letter, he sent it by special messenger to Zillah. - -He had not forgotten that Major H——’s second meeting was that day. Three -o’clock found him again in the hall. This time it was quite full. There -was a new sense of interest, of understanding, present within him as he -entered the place. This time he bowed his head in real prayer. - -The preliminary proceedings were almost identically like those of the -previous occasion, except that the hymn sung—though equally new to -Hammond—was different to either of those sung at the first meeting. But, -if anything, he was more struck by the words than he had been with those -of the other hymns. - -And how rapturously the people sang: - - “‘Till He come!’ Oh, let the words - Linger on the trembling chords; - Let the ‘little while’ between - In their golden light be seen; - Let us think how heaven and home - Lie beyond that ‘Till He come!’” - -This time a lady, a returned Chinese missionary, led prayer, and then the -major resumed his subject. - -“We saw, dear friends, at our last meeting,” the grand old -soldier-preacher began, “what were some of the prophesied signs of our -Lord’s second coming and how literally these signs were being fulfilled -in our midst to-day. This afternoon, God willing, and time permitting, I -want us to see how He will come; what will happen to the believer; and -also what effect the expectancy of His coming should have upon us, as -believers. - -“First of all, how will He come? While Jesus, who had led His disciples -out of the city, was in the act of blessing them, He suddenly rose -before their eyes, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. Have -you ever thought of this fact, beloved, that the cloud itself was a -miracle? Whoever heard of a cloud at that special period of the year, in -Palestine? And I very much doubt if anyone, save the apostles, in all the -country round about, saw that cloud. If you ask me what I think the cloud -was, I should be inclined to refer you to the 24th Psalm, and say that -the cloud was composed of the angel-convoy, who, like a guard of honour, -escorted the Lord back to glory, crying, as they neared the gates of the -celestial city, ‘Lift up your heads, oh, ye gates, and let the King of -Glory come in!” - -“He went away in a cloud. The angels, addressing the amazed disciples -declared to them that ‘He would so come in like manner as ye have seen -Him go.’ - -“It may be that to the letter that will be fulfilled, and that our Lord’s -return for His Church will be in an actual cloud. I think it is probable -it will. Anyway, we know that He will come ‘in the air,’ for Paul, to -whom was given, by God, the privilege of revealing to His Church the -great mystery of the second coming of our Lord, and who said, in this -connection: - -“‘Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all -be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,’ when writing more -explicitly to the church at Thessalonica, said: - -“‘For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are -alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which -are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, -with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead -in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be -caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; -and so shall ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with -these words.’ - -“Now, beloved, can any words be plainer, simpler, than these of Paul’s, -forming, as they do, the climax to all that has gone before in the New -Testament. Jesus had Himself said, - -“‘I will come again and receive you unto Myself.’ - -“The angels said, - -“‘In like manner as ye have seen Him go, He shall come again,’ and now -Paul amplifies this manner of His coming, while, at the same time, he -emphasizes the fact of that return. - -“Now let us look, dear friends, at the separate items of that detailed -coming. We have already, more than once, alluded to the secrecy of the -return of our Lord for His people, and people are puzzled over the -language used by Paul’s description of the return. ‘The Lord shall come -with a shout.’ Then the world at large will hear Him coming? No; we think -not. Or, if they hear a sound, they will not understand it. - -“The Lord’s voice in His spiritual revelations is never heard save by the -Lord’s people. But there is the voice of the archangel—how about that? -The same rule applies to that, we think. - -“There were godly shepherds watching their flocks at night, near -Bethlehem, and there was a whole host of angels singing, but the -Bethlehemites did not hear. No one appears to have heard or seen anything -save the godly shepherds. The same, we believe, applies to the ‘trump,’ -the call of God. - -“In this connection it is interesting to note a fact that probably was -in the mind of Paul when he wrote thus to the Thessalonians. The Roman -army used three special trumpet-calls in connection with departure—with -marching. - -“The first meant, ‘Pull down tents.’ - -“The second, ‘Get in array.’ - -“The third, ‘Start.’ - -“Did Paul, moved by the Holy Ghost, translate these three clarion notes -in the topic of 1 Thess. iv. 16, after this fashion: - -“1. ‘The Lord Himself.’ - -“2. ‘Voice of the archangel.’ - -“3. ‘The trump of God.’ - -“But leaving that, again I would emphasize this truth, that it is only -the trained ear of the spiritually-awakened soul which ever hears the -call of God. We believe that all Scripture teaches the secrecy as well as -the suddenness of the rapture of the church. - -“In all the many appearances of the risen, resurrected Lord Jesus, during -the many weeks between the resurrection and the ascension, even though, -on one occasion, at least, He was seen by 500 disciples at once, yet -there is no hint, either in the Word of God or in the records of history -of that time, that Jesus was ever seen by the eye of an unbeliever. And -depend upon it, no eye will see, no ear will hear Him, when He comes -again, save those who are in Christ. - -“‘The world seeth Me no more’ our Lord said, ‘but ye see Me.’ ‘Him God -raised up the third day, and gave Him to be made manifest, not to all the -people, but unto witnesses that were chosen before God, even to us who -did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead.’ - -“When the voice of the Father came from heaven, witnessing to Jesus’ -truth, the people that stood by failed to hear it as a voice, but -exclaimed,—‘It thunders.’ In the case of Paul on the way to Damascus, -those with him heard nothing understandable. - -“Enoch was taken secretly. Noah was shut into the ark before the flood -came. Only Israel, at Sinai, and not the surrounding nations, understood -those awful physical manifestations of God’s power. Elijah was taken -secretly. The nation neither saw nor heard anything of it. - -“When will He come? I do not know; no one knows exactly; but this we do -know, from the Word of God—that nothing remains to be fulfilled before -He comes. He may come before this meeting closes. Again we know by every -sign of the times that His coming can not now be delayed much longer. - -“Now to a very important feature as to the truth of the second coming of -the Lord. There are many who argue that such teaching will tend to make -the Christian worker careless of his work, his life, etc. There was never -a more foolish argument advanced. - -“First take a concrete illustration that gives the flat denial to -it—namely, that the most spiritual-minded workers, at home and abroad, -are those whose hearts (not heads only) are saturated with, not the -doctrine merely, but the expectancy of their Lord’s near return. Then, -too, every such worker finds an incentive to redoubled service in the -remembrance that every soul saved through their instrumentality brings -the Lord’s return nearer—‘hasting His coming’—since, when the last unit -composing His Church has been gathered in, He will come. - -“Scripture, dear friends, is most plain, most emphatic, in its statements -that the effect of living in momentary expectancy of our Lord’s return -touches the spiritual life and service at every point. ‘We know,’ wrote -John, ‘that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see -Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, -even as He is pure.’ That, beloved, is the general statement. Now let us -look at some of the separate particular statements. - -“Writing to the Philippians, Paul connects heavenly mindedness with the -return of the Lord for His Church saying, ‘For our conversation’—our -manner of living, our citizenship—‘is in heaven; from whence also we -look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.’ To the Colossians the -great apostle showed how the coming of the Lord was to be the incentive -to mortification of self. ‘When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, -then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Mortify, therefore, your -members which are upon the earth,’ etc. James taught that the real cure -for impatience was this dwelling in the hope and expectancy of our Lord’s -coming again. ‘Be ye also patient,’ he wrote; ‘stablish your hearts; for -the coming of the Lord draweth nigh!’ We live in an age which is cursed -with impatience—children, young men and women, parents, business people, -domestic people, pastors, Christian workers, Sunday-school teachers, all -alike have their spiritual lives and their work marred by impatience. A -real, moment-by-moment heart-apprehension of the possible coming of Jesus -in the next moment of time, is the only real cure for this universal -impatience in the Christian Church. - -“Then take another great sin in the Church, beloved—censoriousness. Oh, -the damage it does to the one who indulges in it, and the suffering it -causes to the one who is the victim of it. But here, again, a full, -a constant realization of the near coming of our Lord will check -censoriousness. Writing to the Corinthians, in his first epistle, Paul -says, ‘Therefore, judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who -both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest -the counsels of the hearts.’ - -“The great quickener, too, of Christian diligence is to be found in the -coming of the Lord. Peter writes to us saying, ‘But the day of the Lord -will come as a thief in the night, ... seeing then that these things -shall be, ... what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy living -and godliness; looking for and hasting the coming.... Wherefore, beloved, -seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of -Him in peace, without spot, and blameless.’ - -“May I say, too, in all gentleness and love, that it has seemed to me, -for years, that the missing link in nearly all ‘holiness’ preaching (so -called) is this much-neglected expectancy of our Lord’s return. Paul -connects holiness and the second coming of Christ, in his first epistle -to the Thessalonians, saying, ‘The God of peace sanctify you wholly; and -I pray God your spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless unto the -coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ - -“The scoff of the world, dear friends, against us, as Christians, is that -the professed bond of love is absent from our life. And here again God’s -Word shows us that a real living in expectancy of our Lord’s return would -teach us to love one another. In that same epistle I have just quoted, -Paul says, ‘The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward -another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: to the end He may -stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, -at the coming of our Lord with all His saints.’ - -“I have only time, this afternoon, for but one more of these references, -and that is a very elementary though a very essential one. Paul, in that -same epistle, teaches that to be saved means that we are saved to serve. -‘Ye turned to God,’ he says, ‘to serve ... and to wait for His Son from -heaven.’ - -“I must close, friends. But before I do, do let me beseech every -Christian here this afternoon to go aside with God, and with His plain, -unadulterated Word. Assure yourself that Jesus is coming again, that He -is coming soon, and that you are so living that you shall ‘not be ashamed -at His coming.’ Should He tarry till Thursday next, and He is willing to -suffer me to meet you here again, we will continue this great subject on -the line of the three judgments. Let us close our meeting by singing hymn -number 308.” - -Like one in a strange, delicious dream, Tom Hammond rose with the others -and sang: - - “Jesus is coming! Sing the glad word! - Coming for those He redeemed by His blood, - Coming to reign as the glorified Lord! - Jesus is coming again!” - -As he left the hall, and thought, “How Zillah would have enjoyed, how she -would have been helped, by this meeting!” he muttered. - -“How senseless of me not to have told her of it when I wrote this -morning.” - -He smiled a little to himself as he murmured: - -“May I take this bit of remissness as a sign that the Divine love was -predominant within me, rather than the human? Or was it that I am not yet -sufficiently taught in the school of human love?” - - - - -CHAPTER XIXa. - -“MY MENTOR.” - - -It was about the hour that Tom Hammond entered the Hall to listen to the -Major’s second address. Cohen, the Jew, was in his workshop, his brain -busy with many problems, while his hands wrought out that wondrous Temple -work. - -The door opened, quietly, and Zillah entered. She often came for a -talk with him at this hour, as she was mostly sure of an uninterrupted -conversation. Her sister, to a large extent, lived to eat, and always -slept for a couple hours or more after her hearty two o’clock dinner. - -The young Jew gave the beautiful girl a pleasant greeting. Then, after -the exchange of a few very general words, the pair were silent. Zillah -broke the silence at last. - -“Abraham,” she began, “I want to talk to you on—on—well—I’ve something -important to say.” - -He eyed her curiously, a tender little smile moving about among the lines -of his mouth. There was a new note in her voice, a new light in her eyes. -He had caught glimpses of both when they had met at breakfast, and again -at dinner, but both were more marked than ever now. - -He had laid down his tool at her first word of address. Now she laid one -of her pretty plump hands on his, as she went on:—— - -“You could not have been kinder, truer, dear Abraham, if you had been my -own brother, _after the flesh_. I have looked upon you _as_ a brother, as -a friend, as a protector, and I have always felt that I could, and would -make a confidant of you, should the needs-be ever arise.” - -The gentle smile in his eyes as well as his mouth encouraged her, and she -went on:— - -“A gentleman has asked me to marry him, Abraham——” - -Cohen gave a quick little start, but in her eagerness she did not notice -it. - -“I have promised,” she continued, “for I love him, and he loves me as -only——” - -“Who is he, Zillah?” - -“Mr. Hammond, dear!” - -His eyes flashed with the mildest surprise. But, to her astonishment, she -noticed that he showed no anger. - -In spite of all his usual gentleness she had half expected a little -outburst, for to marry _out_ of the Jewish faith, was equal in shame -almost to turning Meshumed, and usually brought down the curse of one’s -nearest and dearest. - -“He is of the Gentile race, Zillah!” Cohen said quietly. - -She noticed that he said _race_, and not _faith_, and she unconsciously -took courage from the fact. - -She was silent for a moment. Her lips moved slightly, but no sound came -from her. Watching her, he wondered. She was praying! - -Suddenly she lifted her head, proudly almost. She suffered her great -lustrous eyes,—liquid in their love-light—to meet his, as she said, with -a ringing frankness:—— - -“Abraham! I have found the Messiah! He whom the Gentiles call the Christ; -The man-God, Jesus, _is_ the Messiah!” - -His eyes dwelt fixedly upon her face. She wondered that there was neither -anger nor indignation in them. - -“May I tell you why I think, why I _know_ He is the Messiah, Abraham?” -she asked. - -“Do, Zillah!” - -He spoke very gently, and she wondered more and more. She made no remark, -however, on his toleration, but began to pour out her soul in the words -of the Old Testament scriptures, connecting them with their fulfillment -in the New Testament. - -Cohen, watching her, thought of Deborah, for all her beautiful form -seemed suddenly ennobled under the power of the theme that fired her. - -“Now I know, dear Abraham,” she presently cried, “How it is that Jehovah -is allowing our Rabbis—you told me, you know, the other day, of the one -at Safed—to be led to dates that prove that Messiah is coming soon? _Now_ -I know why God has allowed our nation to be stirred up,—the Zionist -movement, the colonization of Jerusalem and its neighbourhood, and all -else of this like—yes, it is because the Christ _is_ coming. - -“Only, dear brother, it is not as the Messiah of the Jews that He comes -soon—He came thus more than 1,900 years ago—this time, when He comes, He -will come for His church, His redeemed ones—Jew and Gentile alike who -are washed in His blood that was shed on Calvary for all the human race. -For He was surely _God’s_ Lamb, and was slain at the Great, the last real -Passover, dear Abraham, if only we all—our race—could see this. What the -blood of that first Passover lamb, in Egypt, was in type, to our people -in their bondage and Blood-deliverance, so Jesus was in reality.” - -Moses, of old, wist not how his face shone. And this lovely Jewish -maiden, as she talked of her Lord, wist not how all her lovely face -was transformed as she talked—_glorified_ would not be too strong a -description of the change her theme had wrought in her countenance. - -“And now, dear Abraham,” she went on, “that same Jesus has not only -blotted out all my sin, for His name’s sake, but he bids me look for -Him to come again. When _next_ He comes—it may be before even this day -closes—” - -Cohen shot a quick, puzzled glance at her. She did not notice it but went -on:— - -“I have learned many things from the scriptures since I have been going -to the little Room at Spitalfields, and from the _Word_ of Jehovah, -Himself, I have learned that Jesus may now come at any moment. - -“He will come _in the air_, and will catch away all His believing -children. Then, as the teachers show from the _Word_ of God, when the -church is gone, there shall arise a terrible power, a man who will be -Satan’s great agent to lead the whole world astray—_Anti_christ, the -Word of God calls him—then, during a period, probably about seven years -altogether, there shall be an ever growing persecution of those who shall -witness boldly for Jesus, and—” - -“_Who_ will _they_ be, Zillah,” he interrupted, “if all the ‘Church,’ as -you say, will be taken out of the world at the coming of Christ?” - -“One of the teachers, the other night, Abraham,” she replied, said, “that -the natural consequence of the sudden taking away of the Believers from -this earth would probably be, at first, a mighty revival, a turning to -God. If this be so, then these converts will be the witnesses to Jesus -during the awful seven years, which the Word of God calls The Great -Tribulation.” - -“Then too, one of the teachers at the Room said, ‘it is possible that -not all Christians will be caught up in the air at the coming again of -Jesus, but _only_ those faithful ones who are found watching, expecting -His coming. If that be so—and no one dare dogmatise about so sacred and -solemn a thing—then there will be thousands of Christians left behind who -will have to pass through the awful time of Antichrist’s Tribulation.’” - -Her face glowed with holy light, as inspired by the thought in her soul, -she went on:— - -“At first, dear Abraham, our own race will return to Jerusalem, and to -all the land of our Father, still believing in the coming of the Messiah. -The temple—that wondrous Temple for which you are working—will be reared -to Jehovah. The morning and evening sacrifices will be resumed. Then -presently the Antichrist will make our people believe that he is the -Messiah. Pretending to be Israel’s friend and protector he will deceive -them at first, but, by and by, he will try to force idolatry upon them, -he will want to set up in our glorious Temple, (which will have been -reared to Jehovah,) an idol, an abomination. - -“The teacher whom I have heard, Abraham,—and many of them are of our own -race—see from scripture that the great mass of our people, in the land of -our fathers, will blindly accept this hideous idol worship. - -“But Jehovah will not let Antichrist have all his own way. Jesus, with -all those who were caught up with Him into the air, will come to the -deliverance of our people. He will come, _this_ time, to the earth. He -will fight against Antichrist, will overcome him, His feet shall stand on -the Mount of Olives. - -“Our poor deluded, suffering people will see Him, as our own prophets -have said:—“_I will pour out upon the House of David and upon the -inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication, 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 first-born_.” - -She paused abruptly, struck by Cohen’s quietude of manner, where she had -expected a storm. Gazing up wonderingly into his face she cried:— - -“Abraham, why are you thus quiet? Why have you not cursed me for a -Meshumed, dear? Can it be that you, too, know aught of these glorious -truths?” - -There was sadness and kindness in his eyes as he returned her pleading -glance. But there was no trace of anger. - -“I wonder why, little sister,” he began, “I am not angry, as the men of -Israel’s faith usually are with a Meshumed, even though the defaulter -should be as beautiful as Zillah Robart?” - -His glance grew kinder, as he went on:—“I began to wonder where my -little sister went, twice a week, in the evenings, and, anxious about -her, lest she, in her innocence of heart and ignorance of life, should -get into trouble, I followed her one night, and saw that she entered a -hall, which I knew to be a preaching-place for Jews.” - -Zillah’s eyes were very wide with wonder. But she did not interrupt him. - -“I did not enter the place myself,” he went on, “but that very first -night, while waiting about for a few minutes, I met an old friend, a -Jew like myself, by _race_, but a Christian by faith. He talked with -me, pointed to _our_ scriptures, quoted from the Gentile New Testament, -showed, from them, how, in every detail, the birth, the life, the death -of Jesus, the Nazarene, fulfilled the prophecies of our father, and——” - -“And you, Abraham—” Zillah laid her hand on the Jew’s wrist, in a swift -gesture of excitement, “you, dear,” she cried, “see that Jesus was the -Messiah?” - -Slowly, almost sorrowfully it seemed to the eager girl, he shook his head. - -“I cannot say all that, Zillah,” he went on, “I sat in a seat, last -night, in that Hall, where I could see you and Hammond, where I could -hear all that was said upon the platform, but where I knew that neither -you nor Hammond would be able to see me. All that I heard, last night, -dear, has more than half convinced me, but—well, I cannot rush through -this matter, I have to remember that it has to do with the life beyond, -as well as this life.” - -He sighed a little wearily. - -“I saw the meeting between Hammond and you, Zillah,” he went on. “I had -before begun to scent something of Hammond’s probable feeling for you, -and I had seen you look at him in a way that, though you did not yourself -probably realize it, meant, I knew, a growing feeling for him warmer -than our maidens usually bestow on a Gentile. I saw you enter the cab -together, and drive off, and——” - -He sighed again. Then without finishing his sentence, he said: - -“Perhaps I shall see with you, Zillah, soon. Meanwhile, dear——” - -He lifted his hands, let them rest upon her head, and softly, reverently, -cried:— - -“The Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make his face shine upon -thee, and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up His countenance upon -thee, and give thee peace.” - -The sweet old Nazarite blessing never fell more tenderly upon human ears -than it did upon Zillah Robart. Jehovah _had_ been very gracious to her. -She had feared anger, indignation from her brother-in-law, she received -blessing instead. - -As he slowly lifted his hands from her head, she caught them in hers, -lifted them to her lips, and kissed them gratefully. - -“May that blessing fall back upon your own head, upon your heart, your -life, dear Abraham?” she cried. - -Still holding his hands, she lifted her head. An eager light filled all -her face, as she added:— - -“It wants but a few days to Passover, dear, I shall pray God that He -will reveal Jesus fully to you before that!” - -She dropped his hands, and made for the door. “I hear the children from -school,” she cried. Then she was gone. - -Cohen did not turn to his work. But taking a New Testament from his -pocket, began to study anew the Passion of Jesus, as recorded in the -Gospels. - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -THE PLACARD. - - -Riding back to his office from that meeting Tom Hammond asked -himself:—“Ought I to begin to make this near Return of our Lord for His -church, the subject of my ‘Prophet’s Chamber Column’ for to-morrow’s -issue?” - -“I must seek special guidance about this,” he presently decided. - -The cab was nearing the office when he suddenly murmured:—“HE might come -_to-day_!” - -Even as he murmured the words his eyes seemed to see a striking way of -exhibiting his new-found faith in the Return of his Lord, and he came to -a rapid decision. - -Lifting the flap in the roof of the cab, he told the driver to go on to -a certain Sign and Ticket writer’s. Arrived at the place, he explained -to the writer that he wanted a card three feet six inches long, -proportionate in width, very _boldly_, handsomely written with just the -two words upon it, in the order of his sketch. - -He had taken an odd piece of card from the man’s scrap heap, and with his -pencil he drew out his idea, thus:— - - +------------+ - | TO-DAY? | - | PERHAPS! | - +------------+ - -“How soon can I have it?” he asked. - -“In a couple of hours, sir!” - -“Pack it carefully and I will send a messenger for it!” - -Hammond was turning from the counter, when the man said:— - -“I beg your pardon, sir, but if it is not too bold a question, may I ask -what the two words mean?” - -“They mean,” smiled Tom Hammond, “that Jesus Christ, God’s son, may come -suddenly to-day, before even you have time to finish the work upon my -order!” - -The man’s face wore a puzzled look. Then suddenly it brightened a little, -as he said:— - -“Ah! I sees, its somethink religious. That aint in my line, not a bit, -sir. I aint built that way. Now, my misses is! She’s the best wife a man -ever had, I can’t find a speck o’ fault wi’ her, but, there it is, yer -know, she’s gone, fair gone, sir, on religious things!” - -“Do you love her? Would you like to lose her?” asked Hammond. - -“Like to lose her, sir? why, no, sir! I believes I should—I should—well I -don’t know what I should do, if she wur took!” - -There was a note of deep gravity in Tom Hammond’s voice, as he said:— - -“Then let that motto warn you, as you prepare to write it, that even -before you can finish it, the Christ who is to come again, who _will_ -surely come now very soon, may come. Then, when you go to look for your -wife, when you are perhaps expecting her to call you to your tea, she -will be missing. You will call her, search for her, yet never find her. -Because, if she is a true child of God, she, with all _true_ Christians, -will have been snatched away unseen from the world, caught up to meet -their Lord in the air.” - -“Good gracious, sir! yer give me the creeps!” gasped the man. - -“‘Seek ye the Lord’—your good wife’s Lord,—‘while He may be found,’ my -friend.” With this parting word Tom Hammond left the shop. - -Two hours and a half later the splendid bit of sign writing hung upon the -wall of Hammond’s room. - -It was a most striking placard. The first letter of each word nearly -eight inches in length, and in brilliant crimson, the other letters six -inches long in deep, purple black. - -As he sat back and regarded it where it hung, Tom Hammond mused on all -that he had heard that afternoon, of the effects upon the lives of those -who possessed a real heart apprehension of the truth of the near Return -of the Lord. - -“One can scarcely conceive,” he murmured, “what London, what all the -civilized, and so-called Christian world, would be like, if every man -and woman, who _professes_ to be a christian, lived in the light of the -truth that the Lord’s return was near, was imminent. ‘Every man’ (he was -recalling the truth quoted that afternoon), ‘_Who hath this Hope in him, -purifieth himself even as He (Jesus) is pure._’” - -The rest of the day was a busy one. Many callers came in. Everyone -noticed the strange placard. Some asked what it meant. Modestly, but with -strong purpose, and with perfect frankness, Hammond told each and all who -enquired, of his change of heart, and how possessed with the fact that -Christ’s return was imminent, he had had the placard done for his own, -and for others quickening and reminder. - -People smiled indulgently, but entered into no argument with him. He was -too important a man for that, and, equally, they dare not _pooh-pooh_ his -testimony, wild as it appeared to most, if not all of them. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -WAS HE MAD? - - -Madge, a wife of barely eighteen hours, found her husband’s church packed -in every nook and corner when she entered it on the Sunday morning. - -The news of her sudden return, and equally sudden marriage, had helped to -fill the church, though the knowledge that the Rev. Doig was to preach -would, in itself, have been sufficient to have gathered an unusually -large congregation. - -During the pastor’s sickness the pulpit had been supplied by various good -men, secured by the deacons from all over the county. Doig had preached -twice before, and was already a great favourite with the people. - -The pastor had not been well enough to be present at any service for many -weeks, and as he entered the church this morning, leaning heavily upon -his wife’s arm, he received quite an ovation from the people. - -In spite of the curiosity and excitement over Madge’s appearance, the -congregation speedily settled down to quiet worship. There was something -subducing, quieting in the preacher’s manner. Just before the address, -the people sang:— - - “Lo! God is here! let us adore, - And own how dreadful is this place! - Let all within us feel His power, - And silent bow before His face; - Who know His power, His grace who prove, - Serve Him with awe, with reverence, love.” - -With the singing of this hymn a deep, deep solemnity came down upon the -assembly. It deepened as the preacher unfolded the wonders of the Bible -revelation relating to the Lord’s second coming. - -Madge forgot her husband, as, absorbed by the wonder of the revelation, -she drank in the glorious truth. Had she been more alert in watching the -pastor, she would have seen how restless he grew! How angrily his eyes -flashed! How scowling his beetling brows became. - -Some of the people noticed their pastor’s evident displeasure, and so did -one or two of the deacons. But no one dreamed that he would dare to utter -any dissent to the service. - -Was he mad? Perhaps he was, for the time, as many men and women become, -who nurse a groundless, senseless anger and jealousy! He was jealous of -this man’s hold upon the people. He had not dreamed that any man could -hold his congregation, as this man was holding them. He was angry, too, -at the doctrine preached. - -With a startling suddenness he leaped to his feet, forgetting his -weakness, as he cried:— - -“I will not have that lying, senseless nonsense—worse than -nonsense—preached in _my_ church, Mr. Doig. You will either announce -another text, and take a different subject, sir, or you must cease to -preach!” - -A slight flush rose into the cheeks of the preacher, as he half turned to -the pastor, and in low, but firm voice, heard everywhere amid the sudden -strained silence, he said:— - -“Dear Pastor, if you insist, (you have the _legal_ right to do so, as -_pastor_ of this church, I suppose) I will desist. But I cannot, if I -preach on, do other than declare all that God would have me do. Why, -even as we are here, our Loving Lord may come, and if I faltered in my -testimony I should have to meet Him ashamedly—and—” - -“Rot!” muttered the pastor. The word was heard by everyone, and a murmur -of strong dissent ran through the place. - -With a white angry face, and flashing savage eyes, the Pastor walked -to the table, and leant upon it heavily in his weakness, as he cried -hoarsely, “This service is now concluded. While I hold the pastorate, no -such sentimental rubbish, as Mr. Doig seems bent upon giving us, shall be -voiced from this platform.” - -One of the deacons protested. The pastor was firm. Passion had rendered -him temporarily irresponsible. Another of the deacons, who had been -conferring with Doig—who had whispered the facts of the pastor’s evident -temporary irresponsibility—now urged the people to disperse quietly. - -Doig walked down to his host, and whispered, “if I go at once, it will -help matters.” The pair then left the church. The congregation followed -quickly. The deacons remained behind to confer together over the -situation, which was of a hitherto unheard of character. - - * * * * * - -The pastor had left by the side door, and leaning more heavily than ever -upon Madge, they made their way to the house of Thaddeus Finisterre, -Madge’s father. They were staying there. They took a private way, -by which they were spared the unpleasantness of meeting any of the -congregation. - -Four minutes took them to the house. Neither of them spoke during the -brief journey. For the first time in her life Madge knew what it was -to feel the touch of fear. She had married the man by her side knowing -comparatively little of his real character and temperament. - -“There may be insanity in his family,” she mused, as she walked by his -side. She had already told herself that nothing but a temporary touch of -madness could have led to his outburst in the church. - -Arrived at the house, the pastor went straight to his room, this gave -Madge an opportunity to confer with her father and mother a moment. - -“His long anxious illness has unsettled his brain a little!” the mother -said. “The best thing will be to take no notice, let us all be as -cheerful, as much like our ordinary selves, as we can. Then, if we can -persuade him to go away to-morrow, I guess the best thing for you to do, -Madge, will be to get a good doctor to examine him, and to prescribe for -him.” - -The dinner-meal which followed, presently, was fairly free of constraint. -After dinner Mr. and Mrs. Finisterre slipped away and left the husband -and wife to themselves. - -Almost immediately the pair were left, the pastor began to abuse the -preacher of the morning, and to denounce the teaching of the Lord’s -second coming. - -“But, my dear,” cried Madge, “it is evidently almost the most prominent -doctrine in the New Testament. There are more direct references to it in -the New Testament, Mr. Doig said, than to any other revealed doctrine.” - -“But its not _my_ doctrine,” snapped the pastor, “not the doctrine of -_our_ church. It was scoffed at at our college, when _I_ was a student, -and—and—” - -Madge gazed wonderingly at him. His argument seemed so puerile, if not -actually sinful. - -“But,” she cried, “I don’t see how that argument holds. To me, it -sounds like blasphemy, almost, to say _I_, as a _minister_, and _we_ -as a _church_, will not preach the most prominent doctrine of the New -Testament, because of the foolish abuse of the teaching by here and there -a wild visionary who lets his fancy and whim run away with his judgment. -Suppose, dear Homer, some church or minister should say, ‘We won’t preach -the doctrine of the Atonement,’ would that save them from the charge of -blasphemy, when God says: - -“‘If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, -God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy -City, and from the things which are written in his Book.’” - -The pastor gazed at her in amazement. Her fashion of putting the matter -gave him small opportunity of replying, so he took refuge in the coarse -sneer:— - -“Have you turned _Doigite_?” - -With a quick flush in her cheeks, and sudden flashing of eye, Madge -replied:— - -“If by that you mean, do I see, and have I accepted the revelation of -the Word of God, as to the near coming of Christ, then I say ‘_yes_.’ I -am _not_ a Doigite, but I am, thank God, a Christian! A very young one, -a very poor and inexperienced one, ’tis true, but still I am one, and am -desirous to live to the Lord to whom I have given myself, and, after all -I heard from the preacher this morning, I am more than ever determined to -serve Christ wholly, and I can quite see how this wondrous _fact_ of the -near Return of our Lord will be a new and mighty force to revolutionize -all my life.” - -An ugly snarl curled the lips of the amazed, discomfited pastor, and he -was just beginning a cruel little speech, when one of the Deacons was -announced. - -Madge left the two men alone. As she passed on to her own room there was -a terrible pain at her heart, for the hideous thought came to her:—“Can -Homer be truly converted? If he is, how can it be that he flatly refuses -to believe what God has so plainly revealed?” - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. - -FROM THE PROPHET’S CHAMBER. - - -Tom Hammond was alone in his editorial office. He had come to the day, -the moment at last, when he felt constrained to write out of his full -heart, to the readers of his paper, all that he yearned that the world -should know of the imminence of the Return of the Lord. - -Before he put pen to paper to write on this supreme theme in his -“Prophet’s Chamber” column, he bowed his head on his desk and prayed for -guidance and help. Then he began to write out his heart fully, telling -first of his conversion, and of the wondrous meetings conducted by Major -H——. - -His whole being was fired with holy purpose. “Had ever a preacher such a -pulpit as has the editor of “The Courier?” he wrote. “Had any preacher -ever so mighty a privilege, so great a responsibility as is mine to-day? -This paper circulates through more than a million people’s hands, even -allowing that only the one person purchasing the paper, reads it—though -one might almost safely double that million, since there are very few of -the papers which will not be read by _two_, or more persons. - -“This ‘Prophet’s Column’ will likely overflow all its ordinary banks, as -does the Great Nile in its season, but if my overflowing but carry life -on its tide, as does the tide of the overflowing Nile, then, all will be -well. - -“As a converted Editor of a great daily, I have put my hand, my pen, my -mind into the mighty, unerring hand of God, praying that I may write -only that which will reach the _hearts_ of my readers. And the question -comes to me, ‘what word does London, does England most need to-day?’ - -“This—that all the world should know, and realize, that any day, aye, any -hour, Christ may return—not to the earth but _into the air_—” - -Here followed the teaching of the Gospel and Epistles, as he had learned -it from Major H——, and from his own subsequent personal study of the Word -of God. - -“I appeal to the most thoughtful of my readers, I appeal to the -unthinking, as I say, ‘do you not see how a real belief, in this near -coming of Christ would revolutionize all our national, commercial, -domestic, and church life. How, too, it would immediately settle every -social problem.’ - -“If our legislators, sitting in council at St. Stephens, realized that -before the present Parliamentary session could end in the ordinary way, -that Christ might come, what a speedy end they would seek to put to every -national iniquity. - -“The hideous drink traffic would be swept, root and branch, from our -land. And, in sweeping that curse away, the awful problem of the -unemployed, the homeless, the starving, all that inures to our national -poverty would be swept away. - -“The shameful opium traffic with China; the national Greed for territory; -the Traffic in White Slaves; and every other national iniquity would be -abolished. - -“Christian churches, (so-called) would become worthy of the name -_Christian_. All those bits of devilish device used to extract, and -extort money from the pockets of the people would end, as by magic. -Theatricals would be left to the theatres; nigger entertainments would -be left to the music-halls; the church would leave all these things to -their master—_the Devil_. - -“In _social_ life, people would pay their debts; the wild, mad, sinful -extravagance that marks the life of to-day, would cease. Christians -would love one another. Every Evangelical denomination would be -_inter_-denominational in the truest sense, and be _one_ wholly in their -Crucified, Risen, coming Lord. A love for the poor fallen world, such -as has never been since our Lord spent Himself in service, would be the -order of the day, and not the vision of a few. Every missionary society -would have more men and women and money than they actually needed. - -“But, even as I pen this millennium-like picture, I know, from the Word -of God, that it _cannot_ be _before_ Christ comes. But I seek to arouse -every _Christian_ to God’s call to them on this matter. You, who profess -to be Christ’s, dare not refuse this truth, save at the peril of losing -the _Crown_ of Life. - -“The vast bulk of the churches, I know, preach, that the world will -continually improve until the earth shall be fit for Christ to come -and reign. But I defy any cleric or layman to show me a single word -of scripture that gives the faintest colour to that belief, or -statement—unless the person wrests the passage so advanced from its -distinctly marked _dispensational_ setting. - -“Things (spiritual) are growing worse and worse. There is a wholesale -down-gradeism, too awful to contemplate. ‘Priest and people have erred -alike!’ I take up the official organ of a section of the church that -has ever been regarded as the most out-an-out, in all that pertains to -Evangelical truth, and I find its great head saying ‘The Bible is _not_ -the sole spiritual guide for the christian, for, practically, the Bible -is a _dead_ book!’ - -“The chief leader-writer of that same paper—himself usually regarded -as the soundest of Believers, the most trenchant of all Evangelical -preachers, writes in one of a series of articles, ‘That the so-called -_Finished work_ of Christ, is a doctrine not to be found in scripture,’ -and glories in the fact that ‘_we_ never have, and, I trust, we never -shall, preach this doctrine.’ - -“All this but proves the truth of the New Testament prophecies, -‘_Perilous_ times shall come,’ ‘Evil men and seducers shall wax worse -and worse, _deceiving_, and _being deceived_.’ If only we could all be -induced to read the signs of the times in the light of scripture! we -should then realize that we were in the thickest darkness of the world’s -blackest night, the darkness immediately preceding the dawn, and we -should be looking for ‘the Morning Star.’” - -Here, writing with swift, eager pen, he went over the ground covered by -Major H——, as regarded the signs of the coming of the Lord—the movement -among the Jews; their excitement, as a race, over the date discovery -5,666; the preparations for the rebuilding of the Temple. Then the -increased effort in the Foreign Mission fields. The growth of the spirit -of lawlessness in the world, and in the church. The multiplicity of -spiritualistic devices—_doctrine of Devils_. The awakening of all real, -true, spiritually-minded Bible _students_ to the fact of Christ’s near -Return. And the great, but often disregarded sign, “the scoffers who -shall say where is the promise of His coming? for, since the Fathers fell -asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” - -“But He _will_ come! He is near at hand! Every sign of the times -proclaims this! It is NIGHT, now, and He will come as a thief in the -night. At any moment now we may look for Him. Before this news-sheet, -damp from the press, is in the hands of my readers, Christ _may_ have -come and taken away _every one_ of His own Believing people—_I_ shall be -missing, another here, and another there will be missing. - -“And when a puzzled, troubled London shall be gathering in business, -that saying shall have come to pass, ‘_The one shall be taken, the other -left!_’ (For though this word is _primarily Jewish_ in its application, -it will yet have a measure of meaning for the world, when the Church is -taken away). - -“May every _Christian_ be ready to meet His Lord, when He shall come, and -every unready, unsaved soul who reads these ‘Prophet’s Chamber’ columns, -seek the face of God through faith in the Atoning work of Jesus Christ. -For, believe me, His Return is very near, to some of us the sound of His -footfalls is even now in our ears.” - -He bent his head over the written sheets, praying God to bless the -message. Then an interruption came. A knock at the door, and his sub, -Ralph Bastin entered. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. - -PASSOVER! - - -Cohen, the Jew, blew out the candle, and set the stand aside. The knees -of his trousers were pressed and dusty. He had just been over the whole -house, lighted candle in hand, and had searched every nook and crannie, -every cupboard, every shelf, under the edge of every carpet, looking -for the faintest sign of leaven in the form of bread, cake, or biscuit -crumb. He had found nothing, and went to his room to bathe and change his -clothing. - -“What of you, Zillah?” he had asked the lovely girl, earlier in the day. -“With your newly-espoused faith in the Nazarene, shall you partake of the -lamb with us?” - -“Certainly, I will,” she replied, “_only_ I shall take the meal more in -the spirit of the Lord’s Supper, of the Christian Church. And Abraham——” - -Her eyes, as they were lifted to his, swam with tender, pitying tears, as -she added: - -“All the time I shall be praying that you may meet the Christ of -God, Jesus of Nazareth; and while you seek to remember our people’s -deliverance from the land of Bondage, I shall be praying that you, dear -Abram, may be delivered from the bondage of the legalism of our race.” - - * * * * * - -The Passover table was spread in Cohen’s house. The arrangement of that -table was a curious mixture of Mosaic and Rabbinical command. In the -case of all but really very pious Jews of this day, the real and actual -Passover is not kept. - -Passover—(_chag Appesach_ of the Jews) _must_ have a lamb roasted to make -it the _real_ feast, the ordinary Jew to-day, contents himself with an -egg, and a burnt shank-bone of mutton, and unleavened cakes. - -Cohen’s Passover Feast always included a small lamb. Still, Rabbinical -lore and Bible command were curiously mixed in the Cohen celebration. - -The table, to-night, had an egg according to Rabbinical order, but there -was a tiny roast lamb as well. There was the glass dish of bitter herbs; -the salt water, typifying the tears of Israelitish misery in Egypt; a -dish of almonds, apples, and other fruit, chopped and mixed, represented -the lime and mortar of the Brick-making in the Land of Bondage. - -Chervil and parsley were there, and lettuce. A large pile of unleavened -cakes, a big coloured glass ewer with unfermented wine and water, and -many other items considered to be the orthodox thing at the Feast. - -All the Cohen household was there. Zillah, radiant with the glow of the -new life in Christ that had come to her. - -Rachel, her sister, was red-eyed and sullen. Zillah had been pleading -with her to open her mind, and her heart to the Christian teaching of -the Messiah who had come, and who had atoned for _all_ the race, Jew and -Gentile alike. - -Angry and sullen, the wife had said hard things of Zillah. Her frivolous, -irresponsible nature was more than satisfied with the barest _form_ of -the faith of her race. - -The two children were full of suppressed excitement, the elder—the -boy—especially. - -Cohen, the head of the house, was singularly quiet and grave. His eyes -had a far-away look in them. He looked like a man moving in a trance. - -Presently the boy, (he had been carefully coached) asked, according to -the usual formula: - -“What mean ye, father, by this Service?” - -Cohen’s eyes stared over the head of his son, and in a voice very unlike -its usual tones, replied:— - -“_It is the Sacrifice of Jehovah’s Passover, who halted by the -blood-sprinkled houses of our fathers in Egypt, that the destroying angel -should come not nigh, when He smote the Egyptians, but preserved our -fathers._” - -“Will our people _ever_ do this, father?” queried the boy. - -“Till Messiah come, they will, dear son.” The strained gaze of Cohen, as -he answered, was as though he was trying to pierce Time’s veil, and see -the coming Messiah approaching. - -“_When_ will Messiah come, father?” continued the boy. - -“_To-night_, perhaps, my son. Set His chair! Open the door!” - -Swiftly, but with remarkable quietude, for a child, the boy placed a -chair at the table, then, stepping briskly, silently to the door, he set -it wide open, and left it thus, and returned to his place by the table. - -Rachel took the ewer and poured out a little wine and water into each -glass. In her sullenness, as she came to Zillah’s glass, she slopped the -wine over the edge. The children glanced curiously from the spilled wine -to the face of their aunt, then at their father’s face. - -Zillah’s face flushed; Cohen’s grew pale, and set in a sharp spasm of -pain. No word was said, each took up their glass, and drank the _first_ -cup of blessing. - -There was a moment’s pause, then Cohen spread his hands, bowed his head, -and repeated “The Blessing:—” - -“_The Lord bless us and keep us; the Lord make His face shine upon us and -be gracious unto us. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon -us and give us peace._” - -Under her breath, yet distinctly heard by Cohen, in the solemn hush that -followed the Blessing, Zillah murmured:— - -“_But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were afar off, are made nigh -by the blood of Christ._ FOR HE IS OUR PEACE.” - -Cohen glanced quietly at her. She met the glance with one of intense -yearning. He translated it rightly, as meaning “If _only_ you could see -this truth?” - -There were two bowls of water set on a side-board. Cohen and his wife -rinsed their hands in one bowl, Zillah and the two children in the other. - -Addressing himself to his son, more than to the others, Cohen, when they -had returned to the table, as the head of the house was instructed to do, -explained why they sat at the Feast:— - -“Our Fathers, when they took the Feast for the _first_ time in Egypt, my -son, took it _standing_, with their loins girt, and their staff in hand, -for _they_ were starting on that great journey that eventually lasted -forty years. But we, their descendants, eat the feast to-day, _sitting_ -at our ease, as a symbol that our people have been delivered from the -cruel bondage.” - -Then the _first_ Hallel was repeated.—Psalms 113, and 114. The _second_ -cup of Blessing was taken by each. Then Cohen asked a Blessing on _each_ -kind of food on the table. Then he carved a portion of lamb for each one, -they took their seats, and the meal began. - -The children were excused from eating the stinging bitter herbs. But -Cohen, Rachel, and Zillah, each took a little with their lamb and -unleavened bread. - -Conversation became fairly general over the meal, except that Rachel’s -sullen anger increased, and she kept silent. - -At the conclusion of the meal, the _third_ cup of Blessing was drunk, and -Cohen repeated the 115, 116, 117, 118, Psalm. At the close of the Hallel, -the _fourth_, and last cup of Blessing was taken. The Feast was over. - -A sudden silence fell upon them all. No one moved, no one spoke, for a -moment. Suddenly Zillah broke the dead silence. She had a glorious voice, -and she let it ring out in that wondrous song:— - - “Not all the blood of beasts - On Jewish altars slain - Could give the guilty conscience peace, - Or wash away our stain.” - -No one interrupted. Cohen _could_ not, for the thrall of some strange, -new power was upon him. His wife was furious—but kept her fury bottled -up. The children were delighted, they loved to hear their aunt sing, and -to the amaze of their father and mother—they joined in the singing, for, -with other children, they had often of late been to the evening meeting -for Jewish children. And Zillah, who had talked with them, believed that -they loved the Christ. - -Without a break, the three voices sang on: - - “But Christ the Heavenly Lamb, - Takes all our sins away; - A sacrifice of nobler name, - And richer Blood than they. - - “My faith would lay her hand - On that meek head of Thine, - While as a penitent I stand, - And here confess my sin. - - “My soul looks back to see - The burden Thou didst bear - When hanging on the accursed tree, - And knows her guilt was there. - - “Believing we rejoice - To feel the curse remove; - We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice, - And trust His bleeding love.” - -Again, for full thirty seconds, as the glorious song finished, there was -an absolute silence, save for the ricketting of Rachel’s chair, as she -moved in pettish anger on her seat. - -Zillah had kept her eyes fixed upon Cohen’s face all the time she was -singing, and had seen a strangely wondrous light slowly gather in his -eyes. She had known, for days, that he was very, very near to the point -of acceptance of Christ. Even as they had gathered at the table of the -Passover, she was not sure, but that in all but profession and testimony, -he was a Christian. - -Now he suddenly broke the silence. - -“Sing the last two verses again, Zillah” he said. - - “_My_ soul looks back to see - The burden Thou didst bear - When hanging on the accursed tree, - And knows her guilt was there.” - -Zillah’s glorious voice rang out. And now, even to _her_ wonder, Cohen’s -deeper tones joined hers. Her heart leaped as she noted the emphasis he -put upon the “_My_ soul.” - -She sang on. His voice sang on too. Then came the last verse, and in a -perfect burst of triumph, his voice rang out:— - - “Believing _I_ rejoice - To feel the curse remove; - _I_ bless the Lamb with cheerful voice, - And trust His bleeding love!” - -It was a strangely ecstatic moment for Zillah. Tears flooded her eyes, -she tried to speak, but her emotion choked her. - -Cohen stood up. His face was ablaze with the wonder of the revelation -that had come to him. He spread his hands upward, and his eyes were -lifted in the same direction, as he cried:— - -“Thou loving Christ! Thou Precious Jesus! I am _Thine_—THINE—THINE—!” - -Then he remembered his wife. - -“Rachael, dear heart,” he cried, as he moved to her side. “Machael, wife -of my heart. Jesus _is_ the Messiah!” - -“Bah!” she cried. With a thrust of her hand and foot, she kept him from -her. Then in tones of withering scorn and disgust, she cried: - -“Mehusmed!” - -He bent over her very tenderly, stooping to meet her eyes, and trying to -take her hand. - -The two children clung to Zillah, and the boy suddenly began to pipe out, -in his clear treble, the hymn so beloved of Jewish children who attend -the mission meetings. - - “Come to the Saviour, Make no delay,” - -Rachael shot a fiercely angry glance in the boy’s direction, then without -looking at her husband, she thrust at him, to prevent his taking her -hand, as she cried:— - -“Accursed! Mehusmed! Don’t touch _me_!” - -“But, Rachael!” he began tenderly. - -She flung herself sharply round upon him and spat full in his face. Then -she turned sharply from him again. - -A full half minute went by. The room grew so eerily still that it -startled her. She turned to gaze where the quartette had been. - -The room was empty save for herself! - -With a cry she started to her feet. They could not have gone out of the -door for her chair had all the time stood right in the way. What was this -then that had happened? - -Her breath came hot and laboured. Her eye-balls bulged horribly! A -reeling sickness began to steal over her. She dropped back, terrified, in -her chair, gasping:— - -“Zillah said this morning “The Christ will come _soon, suddenly_, then -those who are His, will be taken, unseen, unheard, from the world!” - -With a sharp, anguished cry, she let her bulging, terror-filled eyes -sweep the room again as she cried:— - -“And my _children_, too!” - -Her eyes were tearless, but dry, hard sobs shook all her frame. - -The next moment a kind of frenzy seized her. She rushed to the front -door, and into the street. She would find out if any one else was missing. - -A little crowd was on the pavement. A hansom cab stood by the curb. The -fare was standing on the front board. He was a minister of some kind. He -wore a M.B. waistcoat, a clerical collar, a soft, wide-brimmed, black -felt hat. He glanced up at the driver’s seat, as he cried:— - -“But _some_ one, _surely_, must have seen what became of him. If he fell -off his box in a fit, where is his body?” - -“I seed him one hinstant,” cried a voice from the crowd, “I wur lookin -straight at ’im, ’cos I sed to myself, taint often as yer see a kebby -wear a white ’at, now-a-days. Then, while I wur starin’ at ’im, he sort -o’ disappeared, the reins fell on the roof o’ the keb, the ’oss stopped, -an—” - -“He’s gone!” shrieked a woman’s voice. - -It was Rachael. Bare-headed, dressed in all her festal finery, she had -just rushed down the steps of the house, and heard the question and -answer as to the disappearance of the hansom driver. The crowd turned and -faced her, her shrill tones had startled them. - -“He’s gone to Jehovah!” she screamed again. “My husband, my sister, my -two children—we were at Passover—we——” - -With a piercing shriek she flung up her arms, laughed hideously and fell -in a huddled heap on the bottom step of the flight. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV. - -“THIS SAYING SHALL COME TO PASS.” - - -Tom Hammond greeted his _sub_ most heartily. Ralph had been away, in -Paris, for a fortnight, partly on business, partly for a change. - -As soon as their greetings were exchanged, he turned eagerly to Hammond, -as he said:— - -“But I say, old man, what on earth is all this jargon you wrote me about, -the return of the Christ, and——” - -He paused suddenly. His eyes had just caught sight of the great placard. -His gaze was riveted on it. He read the two words aloud:— - -“TO-DAY? PERHAPS!” - -In a voice of wondering amaze, he gasped:— - -“What’s _that_, Tom? What _does_ it mean?” - -Tom Hammond repeated, in a few sentences, what he had previously written -to his friend, as to his conversion, then, passing on to the subject of -the Lord’s second coming, he said: - -“I am so impressed, Ralph, with the imminence of our Lord’s return, that -I have had that placard done to arrest the attention of callers upon -me, and give me an opportunity of speaking to them about their eternal -destiny. To-day, too, I have been impressed so with the necessity of -speaking to the world—“The Courier’s” world, I mean of course—on this -great, this momentous subject, that I have made it the subject of my -‘Prophet’s Chamber’ column.” - -He gathered up the sheets of his M.S. he had written, and passed them -over the table to Ralph Bastin. - -“You will see, I have written it in the most simple, almost colloquial -style, Ralph,” he said. “I wanted it to be a man’s quiet, earnest, simple -utterance to his fellow man, and not a journalist’s article.” - -Ralph Bastin’s eyes raced over the papers. His face was a strange study, -while he read, reflecting a score of different, ever-changing emotions, -but amid them all never losing a constant deepening amaze. - -As he finished the last sheet, he looked Tom Hammond hard and searchingly -in the face. - -“My dear Tom,” he began. His voice was very grave, very serious. “You’ll -ruin The Courier! You will ruin yourself! The world will call you mad——!” - -“They called my Lord mad, Ralph, and they have called His servants mad, -over and over again, ever since.” - -There was not a shadow of cant in his voice and manner, as he went on:— - -“The word of our God, Ralph—which is the _only real_ rule of life, tells -us that Christ, whose name I profess, said:— - -“‘Whosoever shall confess me, before men, him will I confess also before -my Father which is in Heaven.... If any man will come after Me, _let -him deny himself_, and take up his cross _daily_, and follow Me. For -whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his -life, for My sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, -if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul.... - -“‘For whosoever shall be ashamed of me _and of My words_.’ (‘_Surely I -come quickly_,’ Ralph, is one of _His very last_ recorded words,) ‘of him -shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when He shall come in His own glory, -and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.’” - -Tom Hammond leant forward in his chair to lay his hand on the wrist -of the other, to plead with him. But, with an exclamation of angry -impatience, Ralph, cried: - -“Hang it, old man, you must be going dotty!” - -With an expression of annoyance, almost amounting to disgust, he swung -round on his heel. - -“Look here, Tom,” he began. - -He swirled back to meet his friend face to face. - -Then, with a startled cry, he stared at the chair, in which, an instant -before, Tom Hammond had been sitting. - -The chair was empty! - -“Good God!” he gasped. - -Instinctively he knew what had happened! Involuntarily his eyes travelled -to the Placard, and in the same moment he recalled the closing words of -Tom Hammond’s M.S. which he had just read:— - -“‘_Then shall it come to pass, that which is written_, “ONE SHALL BE -TAKEN, THE OTHER LEFT.’” - -A strange, unnatural trembling seized him. He dropped into the chair he -had been occupying, and stared at the empty revolving chair opposite. - -“Good——God!” He slowly repeated the words. There was no thought of -irreverence in the utterance. It was the unconscious acknowledgment of -God’s Presence and Power. - -For a time—he never knew how long—he sat still and silent like a man -stunned. Then, as his eyes travelled slowly to where the sheets of M.S.’s -lay, he smiled wearily, drew them towards him, and took his stylo from -his pocket. Putting the most powerful pressure of his will upon himself, -he began to write after the last works penned by his translated chief:— - -“P.S.—Written by the sub-editor of “The Courier.” By the time this -printed sheet is being read, the world will have learned that a section -of the community has been suddenly taken from our midst. The Editor of -The Courier, the giant mind and kindly heart of Tom Hammond, have been -taken from us. - -“The writer of this postscript, who was in the room, when the “Prophet” -of The Courier was taken, was in the act of scorning his message as to -the nearing of the great translation. “In a moment, in the twinkling of -an eye” he was gone. - -“The writer has not left the room since, and has no means of knowing -who else among those known to him are missing,—not many _personal_ -acquaintances, he fears, since one’s personal clique has never shown any -very marked signs of what one has _hitherto_ considered an _ultra_ type -of Christianity, a condition of “_righteous overmuch_.” - -“When we pass out of this room, presently, and touch the great outside -world once more, what shall we find? How soon will it be generally known -that a section of the community—a larger section, maybe, than we conceive -possible—has been silently, suddenly, secretly taken from our midst? What -will follow? Where are the prophets who shall teach us where we are, and -what we may expect? Does the end of the world follow next? Is there any -order of events, specified in the Bible, that follows this mysterious -translation, if so, what is it? Who will show us these things? - -“Again, since I, the writer of this postscript, am left, while my friend, -Hammond, is taken, _why am I left_, and why shall I find—as of course -I shall when I begin to go abroad among mine acquaintance—hundreds of -others _left_? I have been christened, confirmed, have occasionally -‘communicated,’—this is the clerical term, though as I write, it -occurs to me that there must have been some flaw, somewhere, in the -‘_communicating_.’ - -“I have always supposed myself a Christian by virtue of these things, -to which a clean, decent life has been added. Thousands upon thousands, -I feel sure, will be puzzled by this same contemplation, when this -wonderful Translation becomes generally known. - -“If we are not made Christians by christening, confirmation, -communicating, why have we always been taught so, by our clergy? How many -of these same clergy shall we find _left_ behind. - -“And I suppose there will have been some kind of kindred process at work -among the Nonconformists bodies—in pulpit and pew, alike. For ourselves, -we have come little in contact with Nonconformity, but, if what is -accepted generally, to-day, as to the religious situation, be true—that -the curse of the Ritualism of the ‘Establishment,’ finds its parallel in -the Rationalism, Unitarianism, Socialism, etc., of Nonconformity—then I -shall expect to find as many Nonconformists, lay and ministerial, _left_ -behind from this mysterious, spiritual translation, as churchmen.” - -There came a tap at the door. The messenger boy Charley, appeared. He -glanced towards the empty Editor’s chair, then stammered. - -“I beg pardon, sir, I thought Mr. Hammond was here, sir. They have jest -blown up the tube to know if the ‘Prophet’s’ column was ready.” - -Ralph Bastin noticed that the eyes of the boy flitted from his face to -the placard. - -“Know what that means, Charley?” Bastin asked. - -“Yus, sir, leastways, I knows what Mr. Hammond means by it! E sez that -Jesus Christ’s comin’ back, an’ goin’ to take all the real Christians -out ’er the world, an’ nobody wont see ’em go, nor nothink. I ’eard Mr. -Hammond ’splainin’ it all to a gent, t’other day.” - -Curious to know if the boy himself had thought seriously at all of the -matter, Bastin said:— - -“What do _you_ think of it, Charley?” - -“Wal, it’s like this, sir, I aint been to no Sunday School since I wus -quite a young ’un, ’bout eight perhaps. An’ I never goes to no Church nor -Chapel, cos why? Why ’cos Sunday’s the only day—’cepts my ’olidays—when I -gits any chance fur any rickreation or fresh hair. So I aint up much in -’ligious things. But my sister, Lulu, she walks out wi’ a chap as teaches -in a Sunday School—leastways, he oosed to afore he took up wi’ our Lulu, -but now ’e wants ’is Sunday School time fur spoonying, an’ ’e can spoon, -sir, there’s no error—well, knowin’ as ’e oosed to do summat at ’ligion, -I ups an’ arsks ’im about what Mr. Hammond said, about that takin’ away -business, an ’e (Jimmy Doubleyou, Lulu’s chap, I mean, sir,) larfed, -an’ said, “Don’t yer b’lieve any sich rot! D’yer think Gawd ’ud go an’ -_kidnap_ all ’Is people like that?”[1] - - [1] At a Bible-Reading in Malvern in the house of one of God’s - choicest saints, Miss Ann Boobbyer, where the precious truth of - “_The Rapture_” was being unfolded, a minister present, who was - much used of God, as an evangelist, started up, and cried, - - “What! My Lord coming to _Kidnap_ all His people? Never! Never! - I’ll not believe that!” - -Ralph Bastin would have smiled, at any other time, at this curious -reply. But, to-night, his soul was too sobered. Gathering up the sheets -of M.S.’s, he clipped them together, stamped them with Hammond’s -mechanical imprimatur, and handed the sheaf to the lad, giving him -instructions to deliver them in the Composing Room. - -As the lad left the room, he sat back in his chair, and tried to think -out the position of affairs. He had hardly settled himself down, before -the messenger boy returned. - -“’Scuse me, sir,” the lad began, “but summat curious hev ’appened. -There’s two ‘holy Joes,’ in the Composing room, an’ one in the Sterio -room—leastways, they oosed to be—an’ they’s all three bunked off, -somewheres, nobody seed ’em go, an their coats an’ ’ats is ’ung hup where -they ussally is, an’ some o’ the chaps says as they’s translated. Alf -Charman, one o’ the comp’s, oosed to talk like Mr. ’Ammond did, sir——” - -The boy looked a trifle fearsomely at the empty editor’s chair, as he -added. - -“Mr. ’Ammond, sir, I—er—I suppose as—’e—’e aint——.” - -“Mr. Hammond has gone out!” Bastin rapped out the words quite sharply. -All this talk of the missing men was getting on his nerves. - -“That will do, Charley!” he added. - -The lad walked slowly to the door, his eyes fixed on the placard, his -lips moving to the words, “_To-day?” “Perhaps!_” - -“Coorius!” he muttered as he passed out of the room. - -Ralph Bastin tried again to settle himself down for a quiet think. -Suddenly he started to his feet, wild of eye, and with horror in his face. - -“Viola?” he muttered. “My beautiful little Viola? She has talked -continuously of the Christ of late. Has she been——?” - -He seized his hat, and with a crushed down sob of literal fear, he rushed -away. - -Outside the office he came upon a hansom. He leaped into it, shouting the -Bloomsbury address to the man. - -“Drive for your life!” he yelled. “A sovereign for you if you get me -there quickly!” - -The man’s horse was fresh. They rushed through the streets. Arriving -at the house, he tossed the driver his promised sovereign, and letting -himself in with his latch key, he dashed into the drawing room. It was -empty! - -He was leaving the room hurriedly, when he encountered the landlady. -“Miss Viola has gone to bed, sir, she overtired herself, visiting the -sick-poor with her flowers, and all that, to-day, and she——” - -“Thanks!” with a hurried nod he raced up the stairs. The child’s bedroom -was next to his own. He entered it without knocking. He was too much -agitated to stand upon ceremony. - -The room was in darkness, he struck a match, laid it to the gas nipple, -then shot a quick glance at the bed. In that first glance, he saw that it -was empty. He went close up to the bed, it had been occupied, he could -see that. He thrust his hand well down under the clothes. There was faint -body warmth left in the bedding—or it seemed so to him. - -“God help me?” he groaned. And two great tears fell glittering from his -eyes. - -“Viola! Viola! my precious darling!” he moaned. “You were my life, my——” - -His emotion choked him. He was dropping into the chair by the bedside, -when he noticed that the back and seat of the chair were strewn with the -under-clothing, which the child had evidently placed there when disrobing. - -With eyes blinded with tears, he lifted the dainty garments in a pile, -and laid them on the foot of the bed. Then he dropped back into the -chair, buried his face in the pillow—the impress of the lost, beautiful -head was left in the pillow—and wept. - -For five minutes he remained thus. Then rousing himself, he muttered:—“I -must play the man! and get back to the office and lay hold of things.” - -He left the room, and managed to clear the house without encountering his -landlady. Lucky in finding a hansom, he had himself driven first to the -central News Agency. He wanted to find out if anything of the mystery was -generally known. - -The careless-minded, light-hearted tapists, clerks and journalists, were -laughing over the few vague rumours of the translation that had reached -them. - -He said nothing of what he knew, and drove on to the office. - -“If the world has to go on, for a time, just as it _has_ been going, in -spite of this wonderful thing,” he muttered, “then, as acting editor of -the Courier, I had better stifle every feeling, save the professional, -and give London—England—the best morning issue under the new condition of -things.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXV. - -FOILED! - - -Thin and pale, but with the likeness of God shining in her dark -eyes—there was the bruise-like colour of great exhaustion under each -eye—Mrs. Joyce sat wearily stitching at her warehouse needle-work. - -Jem Joyce, the drunken, reprobate husband, was serving a six weeks -sentence for his old crime, drunken disorderliness in the streets, and -assaulting the police. His time would soon be up. The fearsome wife had -recalled the fact, that very day, though she could not be sure of the -_actual_ date. - -As she worked now her voice whispered low in song:— - - “It may be in the evening, - When the work of the day is done, - And you have time to sit in the twilight - And watch the sinking sun, - When the long, bright day dies slowly - Over the sea, - And the hour grows quiet and holy - With thoughts of Me; - While you hear the village children - Passing along the street, - Among those thronging footsteps - May come the sound of _My_ feet. - Therefore I tell _you_: Watch - By the light of the evening-star, - When the room is growing dusky - As the clouds afar; - Let the door be on the latch - In your home, - For it may be through the gleaming - I will come.” - -Low, soft, yearning in its passionate longing for her Lord’s Return, -she began again to hum her lay, when a step sounded somewhere near. -So keenly had her imagination been aroused by her song, and by her -long, yearning-dwelling on the theme of the song, that she, almost -unconsciously to herself, rose to her feet, her work and needle held -lightly in her hand, her face turned towards the door. For one instant, -her imagination had suggested the step to have been her Lord’s. - -The next moment she turned deadly pale. She had recognized the step. It -was her husband’s. - -She had just time to drop back into her chair, and, tremblingly, to -resume her work, when the brute entered. He was drunk—viciously, -murderously drunk. - -He began to curse her, the moment he crossed the threshold. He called her -foul names that brought the flush of a great shame—for _him_, not for -herself—to her cheeks. He sneered at her religion, and blasphemed the -name of her Lord. - -Her lips moved, but no sound came from them. She prayed for grace to be -silent, for she feared to aggravate him. Suddenly, he shook his fist in -her face, and hissed:— - -“Curse you! You ——! Do you know I’ve only come back to you to settle all -my scores. I’ve come to——” - -His foaming, blaspheming rage choked him, and he leaped forward, (she had -drawn back from his clenched fist) and caught her by the throat. - -She could not cry out. She thought his purpose was to strangle her. He -glared murderously back into her eyes, which his awful grip was forcing -from their sockets. He shook her fiercely, hurling hideous blasphemies at -her all the time. Then he essayed to put his real purpose in view, and -drawing himself up, and drawing her, at the same time, towards himself, -he hurled himself forward to dash her head against the wall of the room. - -It was _his_ head that struck the wall. His hands clutched air. He fell -head-long stunned, bleeding, and—presently, he was dead. - -The room was very still. Awesomely silent. - -Margaret Joyce was _in the air_, with her Lord! - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI. - -A CASTAWAY. - - -Madge and her husband left Albany on the Monday morning, ostensibly for -a brief honey-moon, but, chiefly, with a view to recruit her husband’s -health. They had gone to a tiny little house among the Catskills, kept by -a coloured woman named “Julie.” The pastor had been there before, and had -himself chosen this quiet retreat for their marriage trip. - -The heart of Madge was broken, for her husband would not be friendly with -her. He was barely civil when he spoke to her, and answered her in short, -sharp monosyllables only. All the old natural pride, with which she would -have met this treatment a fortnight ago, or less, was, fortunately, for -_him_, swallowed up in her new found faith _in_, and her utter surrender -_to_ God. And with this there had come to her the patience and purifying, -born of the Hope of the near return of the Lord, whom she now loved. - -She had been alone, thinking over the whole position, for a couple of -hours. The situation had become intolerable. She determined to make an -appeal to him, though it hurt her natural pride even to contemplate it. - -“Help me! Teach me! Guide me!” she cried unto her God. And in the -strength of the divine promises of upholding and guidance, she decided to -go to her husband. - - * * * * * - -He was alone, with a book before him on the table. But he was not -reading. He was not even thinking. His mind was in a confused whirl, -born of the inward rage of a much discomfited man. He had made a fool of -himself, in public. He knew it, and he had been too proud to apologize. -He had spurned and snubbed the woman, for whom he had professed to be -dying of love, and who had made the greatest sacrifice any honest woman -can make to man—since she had offered herself to him, in marriage. - -He knew that, in the eyes of his wife, and in the eyes of the little -world he had lived and laboured in, that he had lowered himself, had -proved himself less than ordinarily human. - -Some of his own recent platform and pulpit utterances, returned to his -mind, and they stung him by their reproach. The very last sermon he had -preached, before his breakdown of health, had had for its text, “To him -that overcometh, will I give——.” - -In the course of his address he had alluded to the shame of some of -life’s failures, and had quoted William S. Walsh’s “Ichabod.” - -Now, as he sat brooding over his own fall, the lines returned to him. -They mocked him, gibed at him, becoming, to his brooding imagination, -sentient things with laughing, mocking, sneering voices, that somehow -contrived to fling back into his ears, the very tones of his own voice, -as he had declaimed the verses from his platform, weeks ago: - - “Alas, for the lofty dreaming, - The longed-for high emprise, - For the man whose outer seeming - His inner self belies! - - “I looked on the life before me - With purpose high and true, - When the passions of youth surged o’er me, - And the world was strange and true. - - “Where the hero-soul rejoices - I would play the hero’s part; - My ears were attuned to the voices - That speak to the poet’s heart. - - “I would conquer a place in story, - With a soul unsmirched by sin; - My heart should be crowned with glory, - My heart be pure within. - - “_But the hour that should have crowned me,_ - _Cast all high hope adown,_ - _And the time of trial found me,_ - _A sinner, coward, clown._” - -The thought that many of those who heard him declaim those lines, would -be now recalling them, and perhaps be applying them to himself, half -maddened him. And it was at this worst of all moments for her mission of -reconciliation, that Madge entered the room. - -With a rare gentleness she began to plead with him, reminding him of -all the passionate love he had expressed for her up to the very moment, -almost, when they entered the church together for that Sunday morning -service. - -He answered her coldly, sullenly at first. Then he grew pettishly angry -with her, and snapped sharply at her, contradicting her in nearly all she -said: - -“But, Homer,” she pleaded again, and in the deep yearning heart to win -him back to his old loving self, she knelt before him, and tried to take -his hand. - -With an angry exclamation, he rose sharply to his feet and thrust her -away with his foot, as he cried:— - -“I don’t want you! You go your way, I’ll go mine, and——” - -He stopped suddenly. With a sharp cry of agony, he stretched his hands -out into the empty space, where an instant before, she had knelt—for, in -one flashing moment, she had disappeared from before his eyes. - -“Madge! Madge, dear love, dear love, dear wife!” he cried. - -The sound of his own voice struck chilly upon his soul. Deep, deep down -in his heart he knew what had happened—_only he would not own it to -himself_. - -He flashed a swift glance at the window and door. Both were fast shut. - -“This is what Doig preached! What Madge believed would come to pass!” he -cried, hoarsely. - -There was a strange look of terror in his eyes. - -“Julie will have gone, too, if it _is_ the—the—.” - -He did not finish his muttered thought. Like a man walking in his sleep, -he moved to the door, opened it, and called, loudly:—“Julie!” - -There came no reply. An eerie stillness was in the house. - -He moved on into the kitchen, the room was empty. A saucepan of milk was -boiling over on the hot-plate of the grate! - -He hurried into the garden, calling “Madge! Julie!” There was no response. - -He went back to the house. The turkeys had strayed into the kitchen, -there being no one to drive them back. He made a hurried, fearsome tour -of the house. Every room was empty! - -He went back to where he had been, when Madge was taken, with a groan he -dropped into his chair, staring into space with horror-stricken eyes. - -Suddenly, as though a living voice uttered them, the words of scripture -sounded in his ears. - -“_Lest, that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself -should be a castaway!_” - -A mortal agony filled his eyes, as he groaned:— - -“God help me! I know now that I have only been a _minister_, by training -and by profession, I have never been a son of God by conversion, by the -New Birth!” - -His untaught soul had misinterpreted the real inwardness of that passage -of Paul’s. But it was true, in the sense _he_ meant it, he _was_ “a -castaway.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXVII. - -A STRICKEN CITY. - - -It was not really until business time next morning, that London, that the -whole country, really fully awoke to the fact of the great event of the -previous night. Suburbans, in many cases, only heard the strange news on -their arrival at their particular railway stations. Even then, a hundred -rumours were the order of the moment. Everything reported was vague and -shadowy. There were a few rank unbelievers of the garbled stories of -the translation, who laughed sceptically, then began to grumble at the -strange disorganization of the Railway traffic. - -More than one annoyed, belated traveller, remarked in similar terms to -the utterance of a commercial traveller, at Surbiton station:— - -“If there is _any_ actual truth in this story of the secret translation -of a number of religious people, then the mysterious taking away of so -many signal-men, and engine-men, will be an eye-opener to the travelling -public, who never, somehow, suppose that Christianity is a strong factor -in the lives of railway men.” - -“It is a revelation in another way,” remarked a second, “since it -suggests _why_ we have hitherto had so few railway accidents, _compared -with other nations_.” - -The tens and hundreds of thousands, the millions, poured into London as -usual. But the snap had gone out of most of them. A horrible sense of -foreboding, was upon the spirits of the travellers. As the newspapers -more fully confirmed the news, London approached perilously near the -verge of a general panic. - -The newspapers were bought up with phenomenal eagerness. “Souf Efriken -War worn’t in it, fur clearin’ out peepers!” a street seller remarked. - -But few of the morning papers, (except the “Courier”) had anything -special to say on the great event. Most of them, in fact, were absolutely -silent. - -There were weather prophecies, political prophecies, financial -prophecies, social prophecies, sporting prophecies, commercial -prophecies,—but no prophecy of the Coming of the Christ. - -The “Courier’s” rival had a brief note to the effect:— - -“Some wild, senseless rumours were abroad in London last night, as to -the sudden, mysterious disappearance of numbers of the _ultra_ religious -persons of London, and elsewhere. Some people talked wildly of the end of -the world. We therefore despatched special commissioners, to ascertain -what truth there was in all this. - -Our representative returned an hour and a half later, after having -visited all the chief places of amusement and principal restaurants. But -everywhere managers told the same story, ‘there has been no signs of the -end of the world in _our_ place. We are fuller than ever.’ - -The genial manager of the —— Theatre, assured our Representative, that no -later than last Sunday morning, he heard it repeated at his Church, that -‘as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, _world without -end_, Amen.’ So that, for the life of him, he could not conceive any one -being such a fool as to talk of the end of the world.” - -But the note of the “Courier’s” clarion call had no uncertain sound. -Besides all that we have already seen written in the office by the -translated Tom Hammond, and afterwards by Ralph Bastin, the latter had -added to his postscript, another. It was a solemn, a pathetic word, and -ran as follows: - -“Our sheets must go to press in a few moments, if the “Courier” is to be -in the hands of its readers at the usual hour. But before we print, we -feel compelled to add a word or two more to what we wrote two hours ago. - -“During the last two hours, we have made many discoveries, not the -least of which, from the _personal_ standpoint, is the fact, that the -nearest and dearest being to our own heart and life, one whose life and -thought, of late, has been strangely taken up by the Christ of God, is -missing. She has shared in the glory and joy of the wondrous, mysterious, -and—to _most_ of us, to _all_ of us surely who are _left_—_unexpected_ -translation. - -“We have no wish or intention to parade our own personal griefs before -our readers, but dare to say that no journalist ever worked with a more -broken, crushed sense of life, than did we during the two hours we -afterwards spent in searching London for facts. - -“One curious fact which we speedily discovered, was, that no one had -been taken in this wondrous translation, from any of the Theatres or -music-halls. In the old days—four _hours_ ago, seems, to look back to, -like four centuries—before this awfully solemn event, discussions arose, -periodically, in certain religious and semi-religious journals, as to -whether _true_ Christians could attend the theatre and music-hall.” - -“The fact that no one appears to have been translated from any of these -London houses of amusement, answers, we think, that question, as it has -never been answered before.” - -Here followed a brief _resume_ of his experiences in other quarters. Then -in big black type he asked the question:— - -“WHAT FOLLOWS, (ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE PROGRAM) THIS STUPENDOUS -EVENT?—The Bible, evidently, (when read aright) told those, who have been -taken from our midst, that this translation was approaching, then it must -surely give some hint of what we may expect to follow so startling an -episode as that of to-night. The question is, _what_ follows?” - -“There must surely be many clergymen and ministers who knew _about_ this -great translation, who though not living in the spirit of what they knew, -and being therefore left behind, like the common ruck of those of us, -who were carelessly ignorant—there must be many such ministers left, who -could teach us _now, what_ to expect _next_, and _how_ to prepare for the -next eruption—whatever form it may take.” - -“We therefore propose to any such ministers, that they gather us into -the Albert Hall, Agricultural Hall, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Spurgeon’s -Tabernacle, Whitfields—why not, in fact, into every church, chapel, -Salvation Army Barracks, or even in the great open spaces such as Hyde -Park, and other Parks, Primrose Hill, Hampstead Heath, etc., and teach -us, who are left behind from the wondrous Translation, that has just -occurred, how to be prepared for the next mighty change, for we believe -the bulk of us are absolutely in the dark.” - -“Meanwhile, are there no houses in Paternoster Row, and its -neighbourhood, where books and pamphlets on these momentous subjects can -be obtained, or are all such publishers translated with those of whom we -have been writing?” - -One effect of the last suggestion, in Bastin’s _second_ postscript, was -to send thousands of people to Paternoster Row, the Square, Ivy Lane, -and all the neighbourhood. Some of the publishers of books on the Lord’s -Second Coming, _had_ been _left_ behind, had _not_ shared in the Rapture -of which they had printed and published. - -Storekeepers, packers, masters, clerks, were most of them reading up the -contents of their own wares. Business system among them, at first, seemed -an unknown quantity. Deadness, amaze, fear, uncertainty, all of these -things held and dominated them. - -But they had to wake up. Their counters were besieged. Hordes of people -thronged the doors. In twenty minutes after the first great influx, there -was not a tract, a booklet, or a volume, on the “Lord’s coming, and the -events to follow,” left in the “Row.” - -At any other time those in command of the stores, would have tried to -get the printing presses at work, to run off some hundreds of thousands -of the briefest of the “Second Advent” literature. But, to-day, fear, -nameless fear held every one in thrall. - -The “Row” put up shutters, and went home—or at least got away from -business. - -Business, everywhere, was at a standstill. By eleven o’clock most of -the city houses were closed. Some of the banks never opened at all. -Throgmorton Street and the Stock Exchange were in a state of dazed -incredulity. A few members were missing, and these were known to be -“Expectants” of the Translation. - -“Salvation S——, is gone!” some one called out. - -“Aye!” cried another, “I’d give all I possess, or ever hoped to possess, -to be where he is now. I remember how he tried and prayed to persuade me -once to——” - -There was a rush of members across “The Floor” at that moment. Some one -had a proposition to make, namely a trip to 101 Queen Victoria Street, to -see if there were any Salvationists left there. A little band, about a -dozen, responded, and the silk-hatted, excited little crowd swept away on -their curious quest. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVIII. - -“HALLELUJAH LASS.” - - -There was one “Hallelujah Lass,” in the front shop, at the -“Headquarters.” She was bonnetless, but the big, navy-blue head-dress -laid on a glass show-case. She wore a finely-knitted crimson jersey and -braided blue skirt. Her eyes were red with weeping. She was strangely -distraught. There was no lilt of the song upon her lips:— - - “Oh! the peace my Saviour gives, - Peace I never knew before.” - -“Not all translated then?” began the leader of the Stock Exchange band, -addressing her. - -There was nothing flippant, nothing sneering in his tone or manner. - -The girl essayed a reply, but at first it ended in a sob only. Presently -she recovered herself enough to say:— - -“No, we’re not _all_ translated! You see, sir, the Army, as a body, never -quite admitted the truth of _this_ Second coming of our Lord. It has -always preached that we, as an Army of Salvation, were raised up by God -to get _all the world_ converted. A lady in the train, as I came up to -business, only yesterday——” - -The girl sighed wearily, as she interpolated, “Yesterday seems as far off -as Wesley’s times. But, only yesterday, this lady, in the train talked to -me about the ‘Lord’s near return’—that is how _she_ put it—and said, ‘God -is undoubtedly using the Army in evangelizing the distant heathen, and -thus allowing them to fulfil His purpose in calling out those who are to -form the Bride of the Heavenly Bridegroom—but, believe me, my dear, the -world will never be converted _before_ Christ comes for His Church.’ - -“She talked to me very beautifully, and simply, only, as she said, one -could only grasp these truths in proportion as one kept clear in their -minds the things which belonged to the separate dispensations. - -“‘If,’ she said, ‘The Lord came to-night’—how little she or I dreamed -that He actually would—‘this dispensation would be closed, and a new one -would begin to-morrow.’” - -The girl looked around in a bewildered way, almost as though she was -looking for something she had lost. - -“I have never known anything about the dispensations, and their bearing -on the Bible,” she went on. “The Army has always taught us that we should -_all_ die, lie in our graves until “the _last Day_,” then appear before -the Great White Throne, and be judged according to our lives, and all -that. The lady who spoke to me yesterday—yesterday? oh, how far off it -seems—explained to me, _from the Bible_, that true Christians would -_never_ appear before the Great White Throne. - -“That when the Great White Throne shall be set, the real Christian will -be seated in glory _with_ Jesus, the Judge. And only the wicked, unsaved -dead will be judged there. The sin of the _true_ Christian, she said, is -done with, settled, put away at the Cross. - -“‘There is therefore _now no_ condemnation (_judgment_) to them who are -_in_ Christ Jesus.’ ‘He that heareth, and believeth on Jesus, _hath_ -everlasting life, and _shall not come into the judgment_, but _is_ -passed from death unto life.’ - -“She told me that the true Christian, who might be living, when the Lord -should Return, would be caught up _into the air_, with all the Christian -dead, who will rise from their graves; and, that then the only judgment -that can ever come to the Christian, will take place. That will be at -Christ’s judgment _of Rewards_. She said that eternal life did not enter -into the question. That was settled once and for ever, but at Christ’s -Reward-judgment, the Christian’s _work_ would be tried.” - -Some of the silk-hatted listening men began to fidget. All this talk was -foreign and uninteresting to them. - -“The lady,” the girl went on, “promised to meet me this morning at the -station, at the same time as we met yesterday, ‘_Should the Lord Tarry_’ -she said. But I saw nothing of her this morning. She had been ‘_caught -up_,’ of course, to meet her Lord in the air, and I——” - -The girl’s voice broke, her eyes streamed with tears. One of the youngest -of the stock-brokers asked:— - -“But why, if Salvationists are Christians, are _you_ here? Why were _you_ -not translated?” - -“God help me!” she cried, “I know _now_, now that it is too late, that -I was never converted. I was drawn into an Army meeting by reports I -heard of the singing and music. The Army’s methods fascinated me—the -young officer who came to our town, was a very taking fellow. He talked -to me in an after-meeting, I wept with the many emotions that were at -work within me; I went to the penitent form—and—and—afterwards joined the -Salvation Army—but I know _now_, I was not really saved.” - -She caught her breath in a quick sob, then a little glow suddenly filled -her face, as she added:— - -“But I have settled the matter this morning. I have yielded, -intelligently to Christ, and I know that - - “Jesus with me is united, - Doubting and fears they are gone; - With Him now my soul is delighted, - I and King Jesus are one.” - -“And,” she cried, her eyes flashing with a holy light, “If witnessing for -Jesus means martyrdom, then, by God’s grace, I’ll show by my death that——” - -“Are there many Salvationists left?” interrupted one of her listeners. - -A quick flush dyed her cheek; as she replied:— - -“I _can’t_ say! There are some here at head-quarters, whom I should not -have thought would have been _left behind_, but who are. Though I don’t -believe there will be more, if so many Salvationists, as other sects, _in -proportion_, be found to be left behind, or——” - -The sound of thousands of tramping feet broke into the girl’s speech. The -little crowd of Stock-brokers rushed to the door. - -A dense mass of men and women were marching up the street. Every face was -set and serious. There were many clergymen and ministers in the crowd, if -the clerical collar and ministerial garb gave true indication of their -calling. - -“To St. Paul’s! To St. Paul’s!” a stentorian voice was shouting. - -The stock-brokers joined the mighty crowd, which, grim, resolute, silent, -swept on. - - * * * * * - -By midnight, or soon after, a few hours only after the great Translation, -the hordes of the vicious that festered in the slums—women, as well as -men, _aliens_ and British alike—had heard something of what had happened, -and creeping from their filthy lairs, began, at once to become a menace -to public life and property. - -Many of the police beats were unprotected, the men who had been -patrolling them sharing in the sudden glorious Rapture of their Lord’s -return. By midnight, the whole police service had become temporarily -disorganized, if not actually demoralized. - -Scotland Yard heads of departments were missing, as well as local -Superintendents, Sergeants, etc. In many cases there was no one to give -orders, or to maintain control. And where leaders _were_ left, they were -often too scared and unnerved to exercise a healthful authority. - -Under these circumstances the hordes of vicious, and out of work grew -bolder every hour. They had no fear of the Spiritual character of the -strange situation, for God, to them, was a name only to blaspheme. Hell -was a merry jest to them, a synonym for warmth and rest,—a combination -which had been all too rare with them on earth. Besides, Hell had no -shadow of terror to people who, for years, had suffered the torments of a -life in a literal hell in London. - -Shops, and private houses, and some of the larger business houses had -been openly burgled. A rumour got abroad, that the Banks were to be -raided. - -Ralph Bastin, passing the Bank of England, found that the guard of -Soldiers had been quadrupled, and this too for the _day_-time. Curious to -know how the Translation of the night before had affected the army, he -asked one of the privates if any of the London soldiers were missing? - -“All the ‘blue-lights,’ (as we calls the Christians, sir,) is missin’. -Yer see, sir, if a feller perfesses to be a Chrishun in the Army, an’ -aint real, ’e soon gits the perfession knocked outer ’im. On the other -han’ if ’e’s real, why all the persekushun on’y drives ’is ’ligion deeper -inter ’im. Yes, all the ‘blue-lights’ is gone, sir, an’ any amount o’ -officers. - -“These, as is gone, is mos’ly the middle-age an’ ole ones, an’ those -wot’s been in India, Malta, an’ other furrin stations. I’ve knowed -lots o’ that sort o’ officer, as oosed to hev Bible-Readin’s at their -Bungalows. Ah, they wur _right_, they wur, the other wur wrong, an’ the -wrong ’uns knows to-day as they’s out o’ luck! - -“If yer arsks my erpinun, ser, I sez, that London’s full o’ fools, -to-day, fur if we’d all been doin’ an’ thinkin’ as we’d oughter, why we’d -be now up in Glory wi Jesus. I’ve yeard the truth at So’dger Homes, an’ -sich places, an’ I’ve sung wi’ lots o’ others:— - - “Blessed are those whom the Lord finds watching; - In his glory they shall share: - If He shall come at the dawn or midnight, - Will He find us watching there?” - - “O, can we say we are ready, brother?— - Ready for the soul’s bright home? - Say, will He find you and me still watching, - Waiting, waiting, when the Lord shall come?” - -The man suddenly straightened himself, and glanced away from Bastin. An -officer was approaching. - -Ralph Bastin walked away, the thought that filled his mind, was of the -strange mood that had suddenly come over _every_one, since to-day, -everybody seemed ready to talk freely of religious things. - -He moved on up Cheapside, his destination being St. Paul’s Cathedral. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIX. - -IN ST. PAUL’S. - - -The cathedral was packed, packed out to the doors. The aisles, and every -other inch of standing-room was a solid Jam. The whole area of the -interior showed one black mass of silent waiting, expectant people—it was -curious to note that almost every woman had donned black, in some form or -other. - -The great organ was silent. No one dreamed of singing. The choir seats -were full of strangers. The stalls were filled with an indiscriminate -crowd. There was no rule, no discipline to-day. - -Suddenly the tall, square-built form of a certain well-known Bishop, rose -near the pulpit. He had linked his arm in that of one of London’s most -popular Nonconformist preachers, and almost dragged him to his feet. - -There was evidently a controversy going on between the two men as to -which of them should address the people, each urging the other to lead -off. The same thought was in the minds of nearly all who were in view of -the pair, _namely_, “how comes it that a Bishop, and a popular preacher -like the Rev. ——, have been left behind?” - -A strange new tenseness, a deepening silence, settled upon the mighty -mass gathered under that great dome. Suddenly the silence was broken by a -voice calling: - -“Bishop ——.” Another voice immediately cried, “No! The Rev. ——.” - -A momentary clamour of voices ensued. The voices were not shrill in their -eagerness, but sullen, sombre, almost savage, in fact. A moment, and the -Bishop slowly entered the pulpit. He bowed his head in prayer. - -Like the slow, rushing sound of the letting loose of some distant water, -the noise of thousands of bending forms filled the place, for everyone -bowed the head. - -A moment later, the heads were raised. The silence almost of a tomb -filled the place, when the first momentary rustle of the uprearing had -subsided. - -The voice of the Bishop broke the silence, crying:— - -“Men and women of London, fellows with me in the greatest shame the world -has ever known—the shame of bearing the name Christian, and yet of being -the rejected of Christ,—we meet to-day under awful, solemn circumstances. - -“We are face to face with the most solemnly awful situation the human -race has ever known, if we except the conditions under which, during -those three hours of blackness at Calvary, the people of Jerusalem were -found, while the Crucified Christ hung mid-air, on the Fatal Tree. - -“It may be said that our position bears some likeness to that of the -people who were destroyed at the Flood. Those antediluvians had one -hundred and twenty years warning, we, as professing Christians, have had -nearly two thousand years warning, yet, London, England and the whole -world has by last night’s events, been proved practically heathen—or -atheist, atheist will perhaps best fit our character. - -“The moment came when God called Noah and his family into the ark. But -what never occurred to me, until this morning, was the significant fact, -that God did not shut the door of the ark, or send the flood, until -_seven days later_, thus giving the unbelievers another opportunity to be -saved. - -“And God has given London, England, America, the world, this same extra -opportunity of being prepared for the Return of the Lord, and the -Translation of His Church. - -“For, for some years, now, conferences, and conventions, addresses, -Bible-Readings, etc., where this subject of the Second Coming of Christ -has been specially taught, has been multiplied mightily. I have been -present at some of these gatherings, but, smiling amusedly at what I -termed the wild utterances of visionaries, I neglected my opportunity. - -“Yet, of all men, _I_ ought to have been prepared for this Coming of -the Lord. I have held ministerial office in a church that taught the -doctrine, plainly, in many of its prayers and collects. But I see, -now, that all through my life, I have been blinded by the _letter_ of -things, and have mistaken christening, confirmation, communicating, for -conversion, and for life in Christ. - -“I see, to-day, that I entered the established church of this realm, and -not the family of God, and the service of Christ. I have never really -been God’s, by the New Birth, until last night, when my dear wife, in -company with all the waiting, longing church, was suddenly called up to -be with her Lord. Not by death, dear friends—she saw no death—but by that -sudden translation, that has startled us all so.” - -A low sobbing sound ran through all the building. The gathered thousands, -almost to a man, realised that they, with the speaker, were equally -lifeless, spiritually. - -“I was in the room when my wife disappeared,” the Bishop went on. “She -had been very ill. It became necessary to perform a critical operation on -her. I insisted on being present. I see the scene now. - -“The nurses standing by the antiseptic baths with the sponges and clips -immersed. In the eerie silence of that room, no sound came save the voice -of the great surgeon, as he cried ‘clip’—‘iodoform’—‘bandages.’ Suddenly, -as he half turned to take a bandage of the nurse, the form of my precious -wife disappeared from the operating table. One of the nurses at the -antiseptic bowl, was gone also. - -“And I, a _professed_ servant of the Christ who had called the translated -ones, was _left_, with the great surgeon, and others, as you, dear -friends, many, _most_ perhaps, members of some Christian church, have -been left. - -“‘Sister Carrie gone too!’ cried the great surgeon, ‘then you may depend, -Bishop, that Christ has come for all His real church, for Nurse Carrie -lived in daily, hourly expectation of some kind of translation.’ With a -puzzled look upon his face, he said, suddenly: - -“‘But, Bishop, how is it that you are left behind, who, of all men in our -midst, one would have thought would have gone?’ - -“I had to say last night to him, dear friends, what, with shame and -regret, I have to say to you now, that I _ought_ to have known the Truth, -and have been prepared, but because I was unconverted, I had failed to -apprehend the fact of the Lord’s near Return. - -“Yet, how often, on the third Sunday in Advent, have I, with many of you, -repeated the _Great Truth_, in the collect:— - -“‘O Lord Jesus Christ, who, at Thy first coming, didst send Thy messenger -to prepare Thy way before Thee; Grant that the ministers and stewards -of Thy mysteries, may likewise so prepare and make ready Thy way, by -turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at -Thy _second_ coming to judge the world, we may be found an acceptable -people in Thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father, and the -Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.’ - -“In the burial of our dead, too, how often have I recited, and have heard -the words, - -“‘Beseeching Thee that it may please Thee, of Thy gracious goodness, -_shortly to accomplish the number of Thine elect_, and to hasten Thy -Kingdom; that we, _with_ all those that are departed in the True faith of -Thy Holy Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body -and soul, in Thy eternal and everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our -Lord.’ - -“Again, the words of Paul in the matter of the Lord’s Supper ‘TILL HE -COME!’ ought to have opened my eyes. But I confess, with shame, I have -been blind, a blind leader of the blind——” - -Visible emotion checked the Bishop’s speech, for a moment. Recovering -himself, he went on:— - -“A blind leader of the blind, because unborn of God. I _ought_ to have -known that Christ’s Return was near. I _should_ have known it, had I been -spiritually-minded, by the signs of the Apostasy which, (prophesied to -precede the Second Coming of the Lord) have been having their fulfillment -all around us for years. - -“Since last night, I have lived a whole life-time. I have read the -whole of the Gospels and Epistles, and, taking my true place as a lost -soul before God, I have been born of God. And now, here, in this solemn -moment, I bring to you the Spirit-taught knowledge that has been given to -me.” - -For a few minutes, he traversed ground already covered in these pages, -then, continuing, he said:— - -“Last Sunday, when, in all the pride of my office, I preached—preached in -my unconscious unbelief—I quoted those lines of the poet:— - - “‘They pass me like shadows, crowds on crowds, - Dim ghosts of men, that hover to and fro, - Hugging their bodies round them like their shrouds - Wherein their souls were buried long ago; - They trampled on their youth, and faith and love, - With Heaven’s clear messages they madly strove, - And conquered—and their spirits turned to clay.... - Alas! poor fools, the anointed eye may trace - A dead soul’s epitaph in every face.’ - -“To-day, friends, I know that ‘the anointed eye’ must have traced ‘The -dead soul’s epitaph,’ in my _life_, if not in my face. - -“Now let us face our present position, as those who are _left_! What is -the future to be? This is what you need to know, what I need to know! -_First_, let me say, the next thing for each to do is to seek the Lord, -to cry unto Him for mercy and pardon, while all our hearts are shocked -and startled, and our thoughts are turned God-wards. For unless we close -with God, become His, and live out the future to Him, our portion will be -an Eternal Hell.” - -An awful hush rested upon the gathered thousands, as he proceeded:— - -“One thing appears very plain from Scripture, that is, that when, last -night, Christ came into the air and caught up His Church, living and -dead, that the Devil, who has been the Prince of the Power of _the air_, -had to descend to earth. Christ and Beelzebub can never live together in -the same realm. - -“In the re-creation of this earth, recorded in Genesis, God blessed -everything that He created, _save the atmosphere_, He _did_ not, He -_could_ not bless that because Satan, driven from the re-created earth, -by the breath of the divine Spirit, had taken refuge _in the air_. He is -therefore called in Scripture, not only the ‘_Prince of this World_,’ but -‘THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR.’ - -“Now, beloved, the Spirit of God has left the earth. The Devil has taken -up his abode here with all his myriad agents, and he is going to make -earth as hot for those of us who will witness for God, as is hell itself -to the lost. - -“If we will witness for God during the years we are beginning -to-day—called the years of ‘The Great Tribulation,’ they will probably -be seven in number, and extend therefore to the dawning moment of -the Millennium—if we witness therefore for God, I say, during these -intervening seven years, we may expect to meet with hideous trial and -suffering. - -“Antichrist will now soon make himself known—he will be a _man_, not a -system, mind,—he will mislead the Jews, who will now, immediately, return -to their own land, and build their New Temple. For a time, Antichrist -will appear to be the friends of the Jews, but he will seek to force the -most awful idolatry upon them. The mass of Jewry will accept all this. - -“With the Jew, every Gentile will presently be compelled to accept -Antichrist, and the Roman Beast——” - -A sound of protest was heard from a seat near the pulpit, as the Bishop -spoke of the “Roman Beast.” But the preacher took no note of the -interruption and went on:— - -“The Devil will be so mad at being cast down out of heaven, and because -he knows such a very limited time to work against God, that he will call -up all hell to stamp out God’s people.” - -For one instant the Bishop paused. He leaned over the pulpit edge, his -eyes were full of the light of a holy determination, but into his voice -there crept a tender yearning, as he continued:— - -“Are we prepared for actual martyrdom? For this will certainly be the -fate of many who will not bear about upon them the mark of the Beast.” - -Again there came a growl from that seat near the pulpit. But the most -solemn hush rested upon the vast mass of people. - - - - -CHAPTER XXX. - -CONCLUSION. - - -Quietly, giving the impression that the sense of a great shame rested -upon him, the Rev. —— —— the noted popular Nonconformist minister rose -from his seat and faced the congregation. - -Many of his own church were there. Many others, who had followed the -criticisms of the more spiritual-toned Christian papers, upon his pulpit -and other utterances, were there. Every one waited breathless, wondering -what contribution he would make to the great matter in hand. - -It was evident that it was only by the exercise of tremendous will-power -that he could restrain his emotions sufficiently to speak. - -“God help me, dear friends!” he began, “for I know now that I have been -a Judas to the Lord of Life and Glory, whose _professed_ servant I have -been. I have gloried in my success; in the crowd that always filled my -church; in the adulation of my intellectual powers by the Press. But -I have never glorified Christ. In a hundred subtle ways I have denied -my Lord——He _is_ my Lord _now_, I have found Him in the silence of the -past awful night——. I have been practically denying His deity for years, -I have talked learnedly, when I ought to have been walking humbly, -and—and——.” - -The strain was too much for him, tears streamed down his face, he covered -his face with his hands, and dropped, sobbing, into his seat. - -Sobs broke from many of the people. Weeping is infectious. In another -moment the released pent-up emotions would have become a storm that none -could have stayed. But the Bishop’s voice called out, - -“Let us pray!” - -Every head was bent, and a prayer, such as London’s Cathedral had never -heard before, poured from the Bishop’s lips. The conclusion of the prayer -was followed by a moment or two of deepest stillness. - -The silence was, suddenly, sharply broken by a full, rich voice crying:— - -“Sit up, dear friends! Hear ye the word of the Lord!” - -As the people lifted their heads a cry of amaze rang out from many -throats:— - -“The Monk of ——!” - -The face of the Monk was familiar to all Londoners by his photograph, -which beside being on sale in the shops, had appeared again and again -in magazines. He had a striking figure, and there was a curious -picturesqueness about his appearance, with his smooth, clean-shaven -face, eagle eyes, tonsured crown, and curious purple-brown cowled habit, -girdled with a stout yellow cord about the waist. His bare feet were -sandaled. His hands, long, thin, with white tapering fingers, were -outstretched a moment, then dropped slowly as he went on:— - -“These are times when no one of us may shrink from speaking the truth -boldly, if the Truth has been committed to us. - -“With all due respect to our friend, Bishop ——, I would say, that all the -surmises abroad in London, to-day, and those that have been voiced in our -hearing here, during this hour, are wrong! - -“The true meaning of the mysterious disappearance of so many -ultra-protestants, is this: The great end _is_ near! God’s work was being -frustrated by those unholy zealots, who have been therefore graciously -snatched away to hell, before they could do further mischief.” - -Murmurs of dissent and protest ran through the mass of people, like the -low sullen roar, at sea, of a coming storm. - -The Bishop thought of his Translated wife. He knew, too, that God not -only indwelt himself, now, but that He had guided him in speaking to -the people. He rose in the pulpit to protest against the words of the -Romanist. - -But a voice cried out from the congregation:— - -“Let the Monk have his say. These are strange times, and we would hear -all sides before we can judge.” - -And the Monk went on:— - -“His supreme Holiness, the Pontiff, had been warned of God—as he is God’s -Regent on earth—of the event that has happened in our midst. His priests -were warned a few days ago, and in most of our churches, last Sunday, -certain dark hints of the coming catastrophe were given. God therefore, -now, calls upon you all, through me, to turn to the _true_ church, the -_real_ church, the church of St. Peter’s, the church of Rome——.” - -A storm of protesting murmurs rolled up from the people. - -He waited, smiling confidently a moment. Then he went on: - -“When all the inhabitants of the earth bear upon them the sign of the -true church——” - -“THE MARK OF THE BEAST!” yelled a voice. - -Another instant and there would have been a hideous uproar, but that -everything became forgotten in a new excitement. - -From outside, in the street, there rose the roar of a multitude, crying -“Fire!” Fortunately the packed congregation within the Cathedral, one -and all realised that the alarming thing was _out_side, not _in_side the -building, so that there was no panic. - -In a few minutes the great place was cleared. The Bishop, the Great -Nonconformist, and a dozen other ministers, and laymen, remained gathered -together as by a common instinct, by the pulpit. - -“What is coming, brethren?” - -“The _power_ of Antichrist, and the manifestation of The man of Sin, -himself,” cried the Bishop, solemnly. “The Monk of ——,” he went on “has -been the first to voice the awful claims of this Man of Sin.” - - * * * * * - -A week later!!! - -Like a sow that returneth to the mire, London, England, the world had -returned to its old careless life. The fever for sport, pleasure, -money-getting, drinking, gambling, licentiousness, was fiercer than ever. -Everyone aimed at forgetting what had happened a week before—and the bulk -of the people were succeeding in finding the lethal element. - -There had been many conversions during the first forty-eight hours -_after_ the Translation of the Church, but, since then, scarcely one. -Already there had arisen, all over the land, all over the world in fact, -as the American, Australasian, and Foreign Press Telegrams made clear, a -multitude of men and women who were preaching the maddest, most dangerous -doctrines. - -Among the most popular, and successful, of these was Spiritualism. Not -the comparatively mild form known _before_ the Great Translation, but an -open, hideous blasphemous exhibition that proved itself to be, what it -had really always been—_demonology_. - -Antichrist’s sway had begun. Satan was a _positive, active_, agent. -The restraints of the Holy Spirit were missing, for _HE_ had left the -earth when the Church had been taken away. Other restraints were also -taken from the midst of the people, since, whether the world recognise -it or not, the fact remains, that the people of God are the Salt, the -preservative of the earth. - - * * * * * - -Final word! Whether or no, the writer has failed in the purpose he had -when he set pen to paper; whether or no he has bungled his subject; -whether the reader is, or is not willing to accept the main statements -of the special teaching in this book, does not really affect the real -question, namely, _The Near Return of our Lord._ His word to us, whether -we believe and accept it, or whether we slight and reject it, is:— - -“BEHOLD I COME QUICKLY!” BE YE ALSO READY, FOR IN SUCH AN HOUR AS YE -THINK NOT, THE SON OF MAN COMETH. - -FOR THE LORD HIMSELF SHALL DESCEND FROM HEAVEN.... AND THE DEAD IN CHRIST -SHALL RISE FIRST: THEN, WE WHICH ARE ALIVE AND REMAIN, SHALL BE CAUGHT -UP TOGETHER WITH THEM IN THE CLOUDS, TO MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR: AND SO -SHALL WE EVER BE WITH THE LORD! - - TO-DAY? - PERHAPS! - -The continuation of this Book is published under the title “The Mark of -the Beast.” - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK “IN THE TWINKLING OF AN -EYE” *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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 an eBook, except by following -the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use -of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for -copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very -easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation -of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project -Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may -do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected -by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark -license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country other than the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the - United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where - you are located before using this eBook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm website -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that: - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of -the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as set -forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, -Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up -to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website -and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without -widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our website which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |