{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_18815/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_18815","id":"gutenberg_18815","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18815","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Novels","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Christian fiction","Second Advent -- Fiction","Tribulation (Christian eschatology) -- Fiction"],"text":"E-text prepared by Al Haines\n\n\n\nNote: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this\n      file which includes the original illustration.\n      See 18815-h.htm or 18815-h.zip:\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/8/1/18815/18815-h/18815-h.htm)\n      or\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/8/1/18815/18815-h.zip)\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE MARK OF THE BEAST\n\nby\n\nSIDNEY WATSON\n\nAuthor of \"In the Twinkling of An Eye\"; \"Scarlet and Purple\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNew York\nFleming H. Revell Company\nLondon and Edinburgh\nCopyright, 1918, by\nBible Institute of Los Angeles\nCopyright, 1933, by\nFleming H. Revell Company\n\n\n\n\nPUBLISHER'S NOTE.\n\nAfter the Lord's Second Coming, what will happen to those left behind?\nWhat will the Tribulation period be like?  What will happen during the\nreign of the Antichrist?  What is meant by \"The Mark of the Beast\"?\nWhat will be the fate of those who refuse to bear this mark?\n\nAll of these questions and many others connected with the mark of the\nbeast, are answered in this realistic, startling, awe-inspiring story.\n\nAlthough entirely fictional, the author has based his narrative on just\nwhat the Bible teaches concerning the Great Tribulation--that awful\nperiod of distress and woe that is coming upon this earth during the\ntime when the Anti-christ will rule with unhindered sway.  It is a\nstory you will never forget--a story that has been used of God in the\nsalvation of souls, and in awakening careless Christians to the need of\na closer walk with Jesus in their daily lives.  This volume deserves a\nwide reading.  It should be in every Sunday School Library and in every\nhome.\n\n\n\n\nTO THAT CHAMPION OF \"THE WORD OF GOD,\"\n\nTHE\n\nREV. G. CAMPBELL MORGAN, D.D.\n\nTHIS BOOK IS\n\n(BY HIS PERMISSION) HUMBLY\n\nDEDICATED\n\nIN RECOGNITION OF THE SPIRITUAL HELP,\n\nAND A DEEP QUICKENING\n\nTO BIBLE STUDY RECEIVED BY THE\n\nAUTHOR\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\nPROLOGUE.\n\nCHAPTER.\n\n    I.  TWENTY FIVE YEARS LATER\n   II.  A \"SUPER MAN\"\n  III.  \"TO THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL\"\n   IV.  FORESHADOWINGS\n    V.  CRUEL AS THE GRAVE!\n   VI.  \"A REED LIKE A ROD\"\n  VII.  \"THE MARK OF THE BEAST\"\n VIII.  THE INVESTITURE\n   IX.  THE DEDICATION\n    X.  A LEBANON ROSE\n   XI.  HERO WORSHIP\n  XII.  ANTI-\"WE-ISM\"\n XIII.  \"THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION\"\n  XIV.  DEATH OF THE \"TWO WITNESSES\"\n   XV.  FLIGHT!  PURSUIT!\n  XVI.  MARTYRED\n XVII.  A GATHERING UP\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATION\n\nThe Mark of the Beast\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nThe great acceptance with which the Author's previous volume \"In the\nTwinkling of an Eye\" was received, when published in Oct. 1910,\ntogether with the many records of blessing resulting from the perusal,\nleads him to hope that the present volume may prove equally useful.\n\nThe subjects treated in this volume are possibly less known, (even\namong _some_ who hold the truth of the Lord's _Near_ Return in joyful\nHope) than the subjects handled \"In the Twinkling of an Eye,\" but they\ncertainly should have as much interest as the earlier truths, and\nshould lead (those hitherto unacquainted with them) to a careful,\nprayerful searching of \"The Word.\"\n\nThe Author would here mark his indebtedness to Dr. Joseph A. Seiss, and\nDr. Campbell Morgan, for the inceptive thoughts _re_ Judas Iscariot,\nand The Antichrist.  Dr. Campbell Morgan's very remarkable sermon on\n\"Christ and Judas\"--under date December 18, 1908--while being\nprofoundly interesting and illuminating, it has proved to the Author to\nbe the only sound theory of explanation of that perplexing\npersonality--Judas Iscariot--he has ever met.\n\nWhile cleaving close to Scripture, at the same time it has settled the\nlife-long perplexity of the writer of this book, as to the difficulties\nsurrounding \"The Traitor.\"\n\nThe fictional form has again been adopted in this volume, for the same\nreasons that obtained in the writing of \"In the Twinkling of an Eye.\"\nThe use of the fictional style for the presentment of sacred subjects\nis ever a moot-point with some people.  Yet, every parable, allegory,\netc., (not excepting Bunyan's Master-piece) is _fictional_ form.  So\nthat the moot-point really becomes one of _degree_ and not of\n_principle_--if Bunyan, Milton, and Dante, be allowed to be right.\nCertain it is that many thousands have read, and have been awakened,\nquickened, even converted, by reading \"In the Twinkling of an Eye,\"\n\"Long Odds,\" \"He's coming To-morrow,\" (Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe) who\nwould never have looked at an ordinary pamphlet or book upon the\nsubject.  One of the truest and most noted leaders (in the \"Church\") on\nour great convention platforms, himself an authority, and voluminous\nwriter on the _pre_-milleniarian view of our Lord's near Return, (a\nperfect stranger, personally, to the writer) wrote within a week or two\nof the issue of \"In the Twinkling of an Eye,\" saying:\n\n\"I have just finished reading your _wonderful_ book \"In the Twinkling\nof an Eye.\"  It has _solemnised_ me _very greatly_--more than anything\nfor a long time . . . .  May the Lord use your book to _STARTLE_ the\ncareless, ill-taught professing Christians . . .  Please send me 24\ncopies, etc., etc.\"\n\nThe desire of the author of \"The Mark of the Beast\" has been to further\n\"startle\" and awaken \"careless, ill-taught _professing_ Christians,\" by\ngiving some faint view of the fate of those _professors_ who will be\n\"_left behind_\" to go through the horrors of The Tribulation.\n\nTo be true to his subject, and to his convictions, the author has had\nto approach one or two _delicate_ subjects.  These he has sought to\ntouch in a veiled, a guarded way.  Each reader, if desirous of pursuing\nmore minutely the study of those special parts, can do so by referring\nto other Christian author's works.\n\nThat there is a growing interest in the whole subject of \"The Lord's\nComing,\" is very apparent in many ways.  The intense interest and\nquickening that has accompanied the Author's many series of Bible\nReadings on \"The Near Return of our Lord,\" during the past twelve\nmonths especially, would have proved the revived interest in the\nsubject--if proof had been needed.\n\nSYDNEY WATSON.\n\n\n\"The Firs,\" Vernham Dean, Hungerford, Berks.\n\nApril 24th, 1911.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MARK OF THE BEAST\n\n\nPROLOGUE.\n\nIt was late August.  The year 18-- no matter the exact date, except that\nthe century was growing old.  A small house-party was gathered under the\nsixteenth century roof of that fine old Warwickshire house, \"The Antlers.\"\n\n\"Very old famerly, very old!\" the head coachman was fond of saying\nto sight-seers, and others.  \"Come over with William of Normandy,\nthe first Duerdon did.  Famerly allus kept 'emselves very eleck,\ncream-del-al-cream, as the saying is in hupper cirkles.\"\n\nThe coachman's estimate of the Duerdon House will serve all the purpose\nwe need here, and enable us to move among the guests of the house-party\nthough we have little to do save with two of them--the most striking\nfemale personality in the house, Judith Montmarte, and the latest society\nlion, Colonel Youlter, the Thibet explorer.\n\nJudith Montmarte, as her name suggests, was a Jewess.  She was tall--it\nis curious that the nineteen centuries of Semitic persecution should have\nleft the Jewess taller, in proportion, than the Jew--Judith Montmarte was\ntall, with a full figure.  The contour of her face suggested Spanish\nblood.  Her hair--what a wealth of it there was--was blue-black, finer\nthan such hair usually is, and with a sheen on it like unto a raven's\nwing.  Her eyes were large, black, and melting in their fullness.  Her\nlips were full, and rich in their crimson.\n\nThe face was extraordinarily beautiful, in a general way.  But though the\nlips and eyes would be accounted lovely, yet a true student of faces\nwould have read cruelty in the ruby lips, and a shade of hell lurking in\nthe melting black eyes.  A millionairess, several times over, (if report\ncould be trusted) she was known and felt to be a powerful personage.\nThere was not a continental or oriental court where she was not\nwell-known--and feared, because of her power.  A much-travelled woman, a\nwide reader--especially in the matter of the occult; a superb musician; a\nPatti and a Lind rolled into one, made her the most wonderful songster of\nthe day.\n\nIn character--chameleon is the only word that can in anyway describe her.\nAs regarded her appearances in society, her acceptance of invitations,\netc., she was usually regarded as capricious, to a fault.  But this was\nas it _appeared_ to those with whom she had to do.  She had been known to\nrefuse a banquet at the table of a prince, yet eat a dish of macaroni\nwith a peasant, or boiled chestnuts with a forest charcoal burner.  What\nthe world did not know, did not realize, was that, in these things, she\nwas not capricious, but simply serving some deep purpose of her life.\n\nShe had accepted the Duerdon invitation because she specially desired to\nmeet Colonel Youlter.\n\nTo-night, the pair had met for the first time, just five minutes before\nthe gong had sounded for dinner.  Colonel Youlter had taken her down to\nthe dining-room.\n\nJust at first she had spoken but little, and the Colonel had thought her\nfatigued, for he had caught one glimpse of the dreamy languor in her\ngreat liquid eyes.\n\nAn almost chance remark of his, towards the end of the meal, anent the\nmysticism, the spiritism of the East, and the growing cult of the same\norder in the West, appeared to suddenly wake her from her dreaminess.\nHer dark eyes were turned quickly up to his, a new and eager light\nflashed in them.\n\n\"Do you know,\" she said, her tone low enough to be caught only by him,\n\"that it was only the expectation of meeting you, and hearing you talk of\nthe occult, of that wondrous mysticism of the East, that made me accept\nthe invitation to this house--that is, I should add, at this particular\ntime, for I _had_ arranged to go to my glorious Hungarian hills this\nweek.\"\n\nColonel Youlter searched her face eagerly.  Had she spoken the tongue of\nflattery, or of the mere conventional?  He saw she had not, and he began\nto regard her with something more than the mere curiosity with which he\nhad anticipated meeting her.\n\nIn his callow days he had been romantic to a degree.  Even now his heart\nwas younger than his years, for while he had never wed, because of a\nlove-tragedy thirty years before, he had preserved a rare, a very tender\nchivalry towards women.  He knew he would never love again, as he had\nonce loved, though, at times, he told himself that he might yet love in a\nsoberer fashion, and even wed.\n\n\"You are interested in the occult, Miss Montmarte?\" he replied.\n\nShe smiled up into his face, as she said:\n\n\"'Interested,' Colonel Youlter? interested is no word for it, for I might\nalmost say that it is a passion with me, for very little else in life\nreally holds me long, compared with my love for it.\"\n\nShe glanced swiftly to right and left, and across the table to see if she\nwas being watched, or listened to.  Everyone seemed absorbed with either\ntheir plates or their companions.\n\nBending towards the man at her side, she said, \"You know what an evening\nis like at such times as this.  We women will adjourn to the Drawing\nRoom, you men will presently join us, there will be a buzzing of voices,\ntalk--'cackle' one of America's representatives used to term it, and it\nwas a good name, only that the hen has done something to cackle about,\nshe has fulfilled the purpose for which she came into existence, and\nwomen--the average Society women, at least--do not.  Then there'll be\nsinging, of a sort, and--but you know, Colonel, all the usual rigmarole.\nNow I want a long, long talk with you about the subject you have just\nbroached.  We could not talk, as we would, in the crowd that will be in\nthe drawing-room presently, so I wonder if you would give me an hour in\nthe library, tomorrow morning after breakfast.  I suggest the library\nbecause I find it is the one room in the house into which no one ever\nseems to go.  Of course, Colonel Youlter, if you have something else you\nmust needs do in the forenoon, pray don't regard my suggestion.  Or, if\nyou would prefer that we walked and talked, I will gladly accommodate\nmyself to your time and your conveniences.\"\n\nHe assured her that he had made no plans for the morrow, and that he\nwould be delighted to meet her in the library, for a good long 'confab'\nover the subject that evidently possessed a mutual attraction for them.\n\nMentally, while he studied her, he decided that her chief charm, in his\neyes, was her absolute naturalness and unconventionality.  \"But to some\nmen,\" he mused \"what a danger zone she would prove.  Allied to her great\nbeauty, her wealth, and her gifts, there is a way with her that would\nmake her almost absolutely irresistible if she had set her heart on\nanything!\"\n\nAn hour later that opinion deepened within him as he listened to her\nsinging in the drawing-room.  She had been known to bluntly, flatly\nrefuse an Emperor who had asked her to sing, and yet to take a little\nSicillian street singer's tambourine from her hand, and sing the coppers\nand silver out of the pockets of the folk who had crowded the\nmarket-place at the first liquid notes of her song.  She rarely sang in\nthe houses of her hosts and hostesses.  Tonight she had voluntarily gone\nto the piano, accompanying herself.\n\nShe sang in Hungarian, a folk-song, and a love song of the people of her\nown land.  Yearning and wistful, full of that curious mystical\nmelancholy, that always appealed to her own soul, and which characterizes\nsome of the oldest of the Hungarian folk-songs.\n\nHer second song finished, amid the profoundest hush, she rose as suddenly\nfrom the piano as she had seated herself.  A little later she was missed\nfrom the company.  She had slipped away to her room, after a quiet\ngood-night to her table-companion, Colonel Youlter.\n\n      *      *      *      *      *      *\n\nAt ten-thirty, next morning, Judith Montmarte entered the library.  The\nColonel was there already.  He rose to meet her, saying, \"Where will you\nsit?  Where will you be most comfortable.\"\n\nThere was a decidedly \"comfo\" air about the luxuriously-furnished room.\nThe eyes of the beautiful woman--she was twenty-eight--swept the\napartment and, finally, resting upon a delightful _vis-a-vis_, she\nlaughed merrily, as she said:\n\n\"Fancy finding a _vis-a-vis_, and of this luxurious type, too, in a\nlibrary.  I always think it is a mistake to have the library of the house\nso stiff, sometimes the library is positively forbidding.\"\n\nShe laughed lightly again, as she said.  \"I'm going off into a\ndisquisition on interiors, so--shall we sit here?\"\n\nShe dropped into one of the curves of the _vis-a-vis_, and he took the\nother.\n\nFor half-an-hour their talk on their pet subject was more or less\ngeneral, then he startled her by asking:\n\n\"Do you know the Christian New Testament, at all?\"\n\n\"The Gospels, I have read,\" she replied, \"and am fairly well familiar\nwith them.  I have read, too, the final book, \"The Revelation,\" which\nthough a sealed book to me, as far as knowledge of its meaning goes, yet\nhas, I confess, a perennial attraction for me.\"\n\nShe lifted her great eyes to his, a little quizzical expression in them,\nas she added:\n\n\"You are surprised that I, a Jewess, should speak thus of the Gentile\nscriptures!\"\n\nThen, without giving him time to reply, she went on:\n\n\"But why did you ask whether I knew anything of the New Testament?\"\n\n\"Because, apropos of what I said a moment ago, anent the repetition of\nHistory, the Christ of the New Testament declared that \"as the days of\nNoah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.\"\n\nShe nodded her beautiful head, as though she would assent to the\ncorrectness of his quotation.\n\n\"Now I make no profession of being ultra-Christian,\" he went on, \"but I\nknow the _letter_ of the Bible quite as well as most Teachers of\nChristianity, and without intending any egotism I am sure I dare to say\nthat I know it infinitely better than the average Christian.  And if I\nwas a teacher or preacher of the Christian faith I would raise my voice\nmost vehemently against the wilful, sinful ignorance of the Bible on the\npart of the professed Christians.  Members of the various so-called\n'churches,' seem to know _every_thing _except_ their Bibles.  Mention a\npassage in Spenser, William Wordsworth, Whittier, Longfellow, Tennyson,\nBrowning, or even Swinburne, William Watson, Charles Fox, Carleton, or\nLowell, and they can pick the volume off the shelf in an instant, and the\nnext instant, they have the book open at your quotation.  But quote Jude\nor Enoch, or Job on salt with our eggs, and they go fumbling about in the\nmazes of Leviticus, or the Minor Prophets.\"\n\nHe laughed, not maliciously, but with a certain pitying contempt, as he\nsaid:\n\n\"The average _professing_ Christian is about as much like the New\nTestament model of what he should be, as is the straw-stuffed scarecrow\nin the field, in the pockets of the costume of which the birds conceive\nit to be the latest joke to build.  But I am digressing, I was beginning\nabout the 'days of Noah' and their _near_ future repetition on the earth.\"\n\n\"'_Near repetition_?'  How do you mean, Colonel?\"  Judith Montmarte\nleaned a little eagerly toward him.  In the ordinary way, alone with a\nman of his type she would have played the coquette.  To-day she thought\nnothing of such trifling.  There was something so different in his\nmanner, as he spoke of the things that were engaging them, to even the\nordinary preacher.\n\nThe pair were as utterly alone as though they had been on the wide, wide\nsea together in an open boat.  She had said truly, over-night, \"no one\never comes near the library.\"\n\n\"I mean,\" he said, replying to her question, \"that the seven chief causes\nof the apostasy which brought down God's wrath upon the Antediluvians,\nhave already begun to manifest themselves upon the earth, in such a\nmeasure as to warrant one's saying that 'as it was in the days of Noah,\nso it is again today,' and if the New Testament is true in every\nletter--we may expect the Return of the Christ at any moment.\"\n\nShe was staring amazedly at him--enquiring, eager, but evidently puzzled.\nBut she made no sound or sign of interruption, and he went on:\n\n\"The first element of the Antediluvian apostasy was the worship of God as\nCreator and Benefactor, and not as the Jehovah-God of Covenant and Mercy.\nAnd surely that is what we find everywhere to-day.  People acknowledge a\nSupreme Being, and accept Christ as a model man, but they flatly deny the\nFall, Hereditary Sin, the need of an Atonement, and all else that is\nconnected with the Great Evangel.  The _Second_ cause of Antediluvian\napostasy was the disregard of the original law of marriage, and the\nincreased prominence of the female sex.\"\n\nJudith Montmarte smiled back into his face, as she said:\n\n\"Oh that you would propound that in a convention of New Women!  And\nyet--yet--yes, you are right, as to your fact, as regards life, to-day.\"\n\nThe pair had a merry, friendly spar for a moment or two, then, at her\nrequest, he resumed his subject, and, for a full half hour, he amazed her\nwith his comparisons of the Antediluvian age with the present time.  He\nwas an interesting speaker and she enjoyed the time immensely.  But,\npresently, when he came to his seventh and last likeness between the two\nages, since it had to do with a curious phase of Spiritism, she became\nmore intensely interested.\n\n\"There seems to me,\" he said, \"but one correct way of interpreting that\nhistorical item of those strange, Antediluvian days: 'The sons of God saw\nthe daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all\nwhich they chose.'  The superficial rendering of this, sometimes given,\nthat it signifies nothing more than the intermarriage of Cainites and\nSethites, will not suffice when a deeper examination is made in the\noriginal languages.  The term 'Sons of God' does not appear to have any\nother meaning in the _Old_ Testament, than that of angels.\n\n\"Some of the angels, with Lucifer, fell from their high estate in Heaven,\nand were banished from Heaven.  Scripture clearly proves in many places\nthat these fallen ones took up their abode 'in the air,' the Devil\nbecoming, even as the Christ Himself said: 'Prince of the power of the\nair.'\n\n\"Now both Peter and Jude, in their epistles allude to certain of these\nfallen, air-dwelling angels, leaving their first estate, and the mention\nof their _second_ fall is sufficiently clear to indicate their\nsin--intermarriage with the fairest of the daughters of men.  Their name\nas given in the old Testament, 'Nephilim' means 'fallen ones.'  In their\noriginal condition, as angels in Heaven, they 'neither married nor were\ngiven in marriage.'  It is too big a subject, Miss Judith ----.\"\n\nHurriedly, eagerly, for she wanted him to continue his topic, she said:\n\n\"Call me Ju, or Judith, or Judy, Colonel, and drop the 'Miss,' and do\nplease go on with this very wonderful subject.\"\n\n\"Thank you, Ju,\" he laughed, then continuing his talk, he said:\n\n\"It is far too big a subject, Ju, in all its details, to talk of here and\nnow, but, broadly, the fact seems to me to remain, that fallen angels\nassumed human shape, or in some way held illicit intercourse with the\nwomen of the day, a race of giant-like beings resulting.  For this foul\nsin God would seem to have condemned these doubly sinning fallen angels\nto Tartarus, to be reserved unto Judgment.\n\n\"'Now as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the\nSon of Man,' and----\"\n\nJudith Montmarte caught her breath sharply, and, in an unconscious\nmovement of eager wonder, let her beautiful hand drop upon his wrist, as\nshe gasped \"you don't think--you don't mean--er--er--, tell me, Colonel,\ndo you mean to say that--\"\n\n\"I do mean,\" he replied, \"that I am firmly convinced that so far has\ndemonology increased--the door being opened by modern spiritualism--that\nI believe this poor old world of ours is beginning to experience a return\nof this association between fallen spirits and the daughters of men.  Of\ncourse, I cannot enter into minute detail with _you_, Ju, but let me\nregister my firm conviction, that I believe from some such demoniacal\nassociation, there will spring the 'Man of Sin'--'The Antichrist.'\"\n\nAt that instant, to the utter amaze of both of them, the first luncheon\ngong sounded.  They had been talking for nearly three hours.  With the\nrequest from Judith, and a promise from him to resume the subject at the\nfirst favourable opportunity, they parted.\n\nIntensely, almost feverishly excited, Judith went to her room.  Beautiful\nin face and form as she was, she was fouler than a Lucretia Borgia, in\nsoul, in thought.  And now, as a foul, wild, mad thought surged through\nher brain, she murmured, half-aloud:\n\n\"Demon or man, what matters!  If I thought I could be the Mother of The\nAntichrist, I would--so much do I hate the Nazarene, the Christ--.\"\n\nShe spat through the open window as she uttered the precious, though to\nher the hated name of the Son of God.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER.\n\nThe huge London church was crowded in every part, and men had been\nstanding in the aisles from the first moment that the service began.\nThe preacher who had attracted so huge a crowd at two-thirty on a\nweekday afternoon, was one of the very youngest of the \"coming men\" of\nthe English church.  Tall, thin, with a magnificent head crowned by a\nmane of hair that was fast becoming prematurely grey, and a face so\nintense in its cast, and set with eyes so piercing, that strangers, not\nknowing who he was, would almost inevitably turn to look at him when\nthey passed him on the street.  His career had been a strange one.\nOrdained at quite an early age, he had been offered a living within six\nmonths of his ordination.  He entered upon his charge, preached but\nonce only, then met with an accident that laid him low for seven years.\nThe seven years were fruitful years, since, shut up with God and His\nword, he had become almost the most remarkable spiritually-minded Bible\nstudent of his time.\n\n\nThe day came, at length, when once more he was strong enough to do\npublic service, and though without a living, from the moment that he\nhad preached his first sermon, after his recovery, he found himself in\nconstant request on every hand.  He lived in close communion with God,\nand his soul burned within him as he delivered--not an address, not a\nsermon, but the _message of God_.  The music of the voluntary was\nfilling all the church, while the offering was being taken.  Then, as\nthe last well-filled plate was piled on the step of the communion rail,\nthe voluntary died away in a soft whisper.  Amid a tense hush, he rose\nto give out the hymn before the sermon.  Clear, bell-like, his voice\nrang out:\n\n\"When I survey the wondrous cross.\"\n\nThe hymn sung, he gave out his text: \"Did not I choose you the twelve,\nand one of you _is_ a demon.\"\n\n\"You will note,\" he began \"that I have changed the word devil to demon.\nThere is but one devil in the universe, but there are myriads of\ndemons, fallen angels like their master, the Devil, only they were\nangels of lesser rank.\"\n\nHe paused for one moment, and his eagle eyes swept the sea of faces.\nThen in quiet, calm, but incisive tones he asked:\n\n\"Who,--what, was Judas Iscariot?  Was he _human_, was he man, as I am,\nas you are? or, was he a demon?  Jesus Christ our Lord, who knew as\nGod, as well as man, declared that Judas was a _demon_--a fallen angel.\"\n\nThe silence was awesome in its tenseness.  Every eye was fixed on the\npreacher, necks were strained forward, lips were parted--the people\nheld their breath.\n\nAgain that clear, rich bell-like voice rang out in the repeated\nquestion: \"Who, I repeat, was Judas Iscariot?  Was he a man, in the\nusual acceptance of the term, or was he a demon incarnated?  What does\nthe Bible say about him?  In considering this I ask you each to put\nfrom your mind, as far as it is possible for you to do so, all\npreconceived ideas, all that you have been accustomed to think about\nthis flame of evil in the story of Christ.\n\n\"And first let me say what my own feeling, my own strong personal\nconviction is regarding Judas Iscariot.  I believe him to have been a\ndemon incarnated by the power of the Devil, whose intent was to\nfrustrate God's plans.  In all his foul work of destruction and\nconfusion, the Devil, from the time of the Fall in Eden, has ever been\nbusy counterfeiting all that God has wrought out for the salvation of\nthe human race, and as the time approaches for his own utter defeat so\nthe more cunning will his devices of evil become.\n\n\"In the foulness of his thoughts to frustrate God's purposes of\nsalvation, I believe that when he knew that the Christ had been born,\nthat God had Himself become incarnate, so that He might deliver\nman--for we must never forget that 'God was in Christ reconciling the\nworld unto Himself--that he, the Devil, incarnated one of his demons,\nwho afterwards became known as Judas Iscariot, the Betrayer of Christ.\"\n\nFor one instant the preacher paused, for the awed and listening mass of\npeople who had been literally holding their breath, were compelled to\ninbreathe, and the catch of breath was heard through all the place.\n\n\"To use a twentieth century expression,\" he went on, \"I may seem to\nhave 'given myself away' by this statement of my own conviction.  But I\nam not concerned with the effect, I am concerned only with a great and\nimportant truth, as it seems to me, and a truth which will, I believe,\nbe curiously, fatefully emphasized in the days near to come, when our\nLord shall have taken away His church at His coming in the air.\n\n\"Now let me invite your attention to the actual Scriptures which speak\nof Judas Iscariot.  But before doing so let me acknowledge my\nindebtedness for the inceptive thought of all I have said, and shall\nsay, to Dr. Joseph A. Seiss, of Philadelphia, in his wondrous lectures\non 'The Revelation.'\n\n\"We will turn first again to my text, to the 6th of John, the 70th\nverse, 'Did I not choose you the twelve, and one of you _is_ a devil--a\n_demon_?  He spake of Judas Iscariot.'  The second text I want us to\nnote is in John 17, verse 12, and again it is Jesus who makes the\nsolemn declaration: 'Those whom Thou gavest me I have kept, and none of\nthem is lost, but the _Son of Perdition_.'  The third text I would draw\nyour attention to is in the 25th verse of Acts 1.  It is Peter who is\nspeaking, at the time of the choosing of another as apostle in Judas's\nplace; he says: 'Judas, by transgression, fell, that he might go _to\nhis own place_.'\"\n\nIn spite of their intentness in the wondrous personality of the\nmessenger, and the extraordinary character of his message, not a few\nfound time to marvel at the facile ease and certainty of touch with\nwhich he handled his little pocket Bible, and turned to the desired\nplaces.  As he finished reading the third passage, and laid the open\nbook down upon the desk, the old hush deepened upon the people.\n\n\"Link those three passages together;\" he went on, \"and you will\ninstantly see what I meant when I said just now, that I believe Judas\nIscariot to have been an incarnated demon, and incarnated by the Devil\nfor the one fell purpose of frustrating God's designs for the World's\nSalvation through Jesus Christ.\n\n\"There is not a single recorded good thought, word, or deed that ever\nJudas thought, said, or did.  And do please remember that Christ was\nnever once deceived by him, for in the 64th verse of that 6th of John,\nwe read 'For Jesus knew _from the beginning who_ they were that\n_believed not_, and _who should betray Him_.'  And knowing everything,\nhe said of the Betrayer, 'I have chosen--he is a demon.'  If our Lord\nhad said 'one of you _has_ a demon,' the whole statement would have\nbeen different, for many, in Christ's days, we find, were possessed by\ndemons, and He, by His divine power cast out the demons.  But in Judas\nwe have something different, not a human man in whom a demon has taken\nup his abode, but a demon who has had a body given him in which to pass\namong men as a man.\n\n\"Christ's statement that he was a '_Son of Perdition_,' is equally\ndamning as to the real nature of Judas Iscariot.  He is called the 'son\nof Simon,' as regards the human side of his life, as Jesus was called\n'Joseph's son,'--more especially _Mary's son_.\n\n\"But, though, nominally, 'Simon's son,' Judas Iscariot was ever 'a Son\nof Perdition.'  And because he was this--'a demon,' a Son of Perdition,\nPeter, at Pentecost time, speaking in the Holy Ghost, was able to say\nthat he, Judas, 'went to his own place.'  We need spend no time in any\ndetailed arguments as to whether this 'place' to which he went in the\nunder-world, was Tartarus or elsewhere, it was '_his own place_,' _the\nplace of imprisoned demons_, the place where other demons who kept not\ntheir first estate, but left their own habitation are reserved in\nchains.'  Neither Tartarus or Hell were ever 'prepared' for lost\n_human_ souls, 'but for demons, and, as a demon, Judas went to his\n_own_ place.'\"\n\nHe paused a moment.  His tall, thin form became rigid in the intensity\nof his service.  In the silence, that deepened, the ticking of the\nclock in the front of the gallery, could be heard plainly in every part\nof the building.\n\nSlowly he bent his lithe form forward until he leaned far over the\nReading Desk.  Then stretching out his arm, the long index finger\npointing forward, he said:\n\n\"Listen, friends!  Receive this next part of the message, if you will,\nif you can.  I believe that 'The Man of Sin,' 'The Antichrist,' when he\nshall be revealed, will be Judas re-incarnated.\n\n\"There can be no doubt, I think, but that any one studying Daniel's\ndescription of the Anti-christ will realize that, in his _human_\npersonation, he will necessarily be a Jew, for otherwise, the Jews (who\nwill have largely returned to their own land, and will have built their\nTemple, and resumed their Mosaic service,) would not accept him as\ntheir leader, and make their seven years' covenant with him.\n\n\"Now, beloved, my last word is a very solemn one.  It is this, our\nLord's Return for His Bride, the Church, is very near,--'He is even at\nour doors.'  Any day, any hour he may return.  We, here, may never\nreach the point of the 'Benediction' at the _arranged_ close of this\nservice, for Jesus may come and call up to Himself everyone of His own\nin this place.  Then what of you here who are not His?  For you, there\nwill remain nothing but the horrors of the Tribulation, (should you\nseek and find God _after_ the Translation of the church.)\n\n\"Will you be among the Martyrs of the Tribulation, or of the final\nimpenitent, rebels who shall be cast into the Hell reserved for the\nDevil, for Anti-christ, for the demons; or, blessed thought, will you\nhere and now yield to Christ, and become the saved of the Lord?\"\n\nAmid the most intense hush, he added: \"Somewhere, even as I have\npreached of him, and as you have listened, there is, I believe, a young\nman, of noble stature, exceedingly attractive, wealthy,\nfascinating,--bewitching, in fact, since 'all the world will wonder\nafter him'--yes, somewhere in the world, perhaps in this very city\nwhere we are now gathered, is the young man who, presently, when our\nLord has come, when the Church, and the Holy Spirit are gone, will\nmanifest himself as the Anti-christ.  May God save everyone of us from\n_his_ reign, for Jesus Christ's sake.  Amen!\"\n\nA gasping cry of amazed wonder broke from the thousand or more throats.\nThey bowed, as one man, under the silent request of his spread hands,\nthey heard the old, old \"Benediction\" as they had never heard it\nbefore: \"May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and\nthe Fellowship of the Holy Spirit, all unite in leading us into the\nPeace of God which passeth all understanding, Amen.\"\n\nSilent, awed, in many cases speechless, the great congregation passed\nout of the several exits of the church.  Among them was the woman we\nknow as Judith Montmarte, and _her son_.\n\nIn spite of their pre-occupation, many of the outgoing congregation\nturned to gaze with wondering eyes upon the handsome young fellow who\nwalked with such a regal air beside his mother, Judith Montmarte.  Like\nSaul, in Israel, he stood a head and shoulders above the tallest of the\ncrowd.  And he was magnificently proportioned.\n\nOn the continent, and in New York and Chicago, Lucien Apleon, was\nwell-known, but only in certain of the _English_ circles was he known.\nThose who knew him, whether men or women, fairly idolized him, in spite\nof the impenetrable mystery that enveloped his birth.\n\nFor a full year Judith Montmarte had disappeared from the ken of the\nworld.  Where she went, what she did, what happened to her, none ever\nknew.\n\nOn her re-appearance in her Hungarian home, she called herself Madame\nApleon, and her child was Lucien Apleon.  No one ever heard of a\nhusband, no one knew the history of that year of disappearance.\n\nLucien Apleon was now about twenty-five years of age, but with the\nmaturity of face and character of a much older man.  He was accounted,\nby all who knew him, to be the most accomplished man in _everything_,\nthat the world had ever known.  The greatest scientists were babes\nbefore him.  As artist, sculptor, poet, musician, he could not be\napproached by any living being.  And there appeared an almost\n_creative_ power in all he did, since works of every kind of art _grew_\nunder his hand.\n\nAmong those who had been in that service, and who turned to look at\nLucien Apleon, was Ralph Bastin.  It was his last day in London,\nprevious to those years of wandering recorded in \"The Twinkling of an\nEye.\"\n\nOften during those years of adventurous wanderings the memory of Ralph\nBastin had recalled that wonderful service.  One special moment of its\nrecall was during that fateful, sacrificial cave scene in that\nCarribean Island.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nA \"SUPER-MAN.\"\n\nLondon was still in its first throes of wonder, speculation, and, in\nsome cases, fearsome dread, at the ever increasing discovery that a\nnumber of its citizens had mysteriously disappeared.\n\n\"And the most curious part of the whole affair,\" a prominent London\nphilanthropist had remarked to an informal gathering of the Committee\nof one of the Great Societies, \"is this, that whether we look at the\ngaps in our own committee, or of any other committee, or of any\nchurch--as far as I have been able to gather, the story is the same,\nthe missing people are in almost every case those whom, when they were\nwith us, were least understood by us.\"\n\nSome such thought had been filling the mind of Ralph Bastin, as he sat\nin his Editor's chair in the office of the \"Courier.\"  Allied to this\nthought there came another--an almost necessary corollary of the\nfirst--namely the new atmosphere of evil, of lawlessness, of wantonness\nthat pervaded the city.\n\nWith a jerk, his mind darted backward over the years to that remarkable\nsermon on Judas and the Antichrist.\n\n\"It is true, too true,\" he murmured, \"'the mystery of iniquity' that\nhas long been working undermining the foundations of all true social\nand religious safety and solidity, is now to be openly manifested and\nperfected.  The real Christians, the Church of God, which is the Bride\nof Christ, has been silently, secretly caught up to her Lord in the\nair.  She was 'the salt of the earth,' she kept it from the open\nputrefaction that has already, now, begun to work.  Then, too, that\nwondrous, silent, but mighty influence of restraint upon evil.--The\nHoly Spirit, Himself, has left the earth, and now, what?  All restraint\ngone, the world everywhere open to believe the Antichrist lie, the\ndelusion.  The whole tendency of the teaching, from a myriad pulpits,\nduring the last few years, has been to prepare the world to receive the\nDevil's lie.\"\n\nFor a moment or two he sat in deep thought.  Suddenly glancing at the\nclock, he murmured:\n\n\"I wonder what the other papers are saying this evening.\"\n\nHe rang up his messenger boy on his office phone.  The lad came\npromptly.  Bastin handed him half-a-crown, saying:\n\n\"Get me a copy of the last edition of all the chief evening papers,\nCharley, and be smart about it, and perhaps you will keep the change\nfor your smartness.\"\n\nIn six minutes the lad was back with a sheaf of papers.  Bastin just\nglanced at them separately, noting the several times of their issue,\nthen with a \"Good boy, Charley!  Keep the change,\" he unfolded one of\nthe papers.\n\nThe boy stood hesitatingly, a moment, then said:\n\n\"Beg yer pardin', Mr. Bastin, sir, but wot's yer fink as people's\nsayin' 'bout the 'Translation o' the Saints,' as it's called?\"\n\n\"I can't say, I am sure, Charley.  The careless, and godless have\nalready said some very foolish things relative to the stupendous event\nthat has just taken place, and I think, for a few days, they are likely\nto say even more foolish things.  What is the special one that you have\nheard?\"\n\n\"Why they sez, sir--its in one o' the _h_eving peepers, they sez--that\nthe people wot's missin' hev been carted off in aeroplanes by some o'\nthe other religionists wot wanted to git rid o' them, an' that the\ncrank religiouses is all gone to----\"\n\n\"Where?\" smiled Bastin.\n\n\"I don't think anybody knows where, sir!\"\n\n\"I do, Charley, and many others to-day, who have been left behind from\nthat great Translation know--they have been 'caught up' into the air\nwhere Jesus Christ had come from Heaven to summon them to Himself.\n\n\"Mr. Hammond is there, Charley, and that sweet little adopted daughter\nof mine, whom you once asked me whether 'angels could be more beautiful\nthan she was!'\"\n\n\"Ah, yus, sir, I recollecks, sir, she wur too bootiful fur words, she\nwur.\"\n\nThere was one moment's pause, then the boy, with a hurried, \"it's all\ndreadful confuzellin,\" slipped from the room.\n\nRalph Bastin opened paper after paper, glanced with the swift,\ncomprehensive eye of the practised journalist at here and there a\ncolumn or paragraph, and was on the point of tossing the last\nnews-sheet down with the others, on the floor, when his eye caught the\nwords, \"Joyce, Journalist.\"\n\nThe paragraph recorded the finding of the body of the drunken\nscoundrel.  \"From the position of the body,\" the account read, \"and\nfrom the nature of the wounds, it would almost seem as though some\ninfernal power had hurled him, head on, against the wall of the room.\nWhether we believe, or disbelieve the statements concerning the taking\naway, by some mysterious Translation process, of a number of persons\nfrom our midst, yet the fact remains that each hour is marked by the\nfinding of some poor dead creature, under circumstances quite as\ntragically mysterious as this case of Joyce the reporter.\"\n\nFor a time Ralph Bastin sat deep in thought.  He had not yet written\nthe article for to-morrow's issue \"From the Prophet's chair.\"  He felt\nhis insufficiency, he realized the need of being God's true witness in\nthis hour that was ushering in the awful reign of The Antichrist.  He\ndid the _best_ thing, he knelt in prayer, crying:\n\n\"O God, I am so ignorant, teach me, give me Thy wisdom in this\nmomentous hour.  If those who cleave to Thee amid this awful time must\nseal their witness with death, must face martyrdom, then let me be\ncounted worthy to die for Thee.  In the old days, before yesterday's\ngreat event, all prayer had to be offered to Thee through Jesus Christ.\nI know no other way, please then hear my prayer, and accept it, for\nJesus Christ's sake.  Amen.\"\n\nRising from his knees, with a sense of solemn calm pervading all his\nsoul, he presently took his pen and began to write rapidly, his mind\nseeming, to him, to be consciously under the domination of the divine.\n\nEmbodying the various items over which he had so recently mused, as to\nthe awfulness of the development of evil that would increasingly mark\nthe near coming days, now that all restraints were taken away, he went\non to show that now that the Devil, who had, for ages, been the Prince\nof the Power of the air, with all his foul following of demons, had\nbeen cast down out of that upper realm, where Christ and his translated\nsaints had taken up their abode, the forces of evil upon the earth\nwould be magnified and multiplied a million-fold.\n\n\"Christ and the Devil,\" he went on, \"never can dwell in the same realm,\nhence the coming of Christ into the air meant the descent to earth, of\nthe Devil and, with him all the invisible hosts of evil.  The wildest,\nweirdest imagination could not conceive all the horrors that must come\nupon those who presently will refuse to wear the 'Mark of the Beast'\nand bow to worship him.\"\n\nSuddenly, at this point in his writing, a curious sense of some\npresence, other than his own, came over him, and slowly, almost\nreluctantly he looked up.\n\nHe started visibly, for, seated in the chair on the opposite side of\nhis desk, was a visitor.  The man was the most magnificent specimen of\nthe human race he had ever seen, a giant, almost, in stature, handsome\nto a degree, and with a certain regal air about him.\n\nBastin had involuntarily leaped to his feet, and now stammered:\n\n\"I--er--beg pardon, but I did not hear you come in.\"\n\nEven as he spoke two things happened.  His mind swept backward over the\nyears to the day of that wonderful Judas sermon he had heard, and with\nthis recalled memory there came the recollection of his turning to look\ninto the face of that magnificent looking young man who had been the\ncynosure of all eyes as he left the church with his mother.  He was\nconscious also of a strange uncanny sense that this smiling handsome\nman, with mocking, dancing light in his eyes, was no ordinary man.\n\nIn that same instant, too, Ralph Bastin knew who his visitor was, since\nhe had become familiarized by the illustrated papers and magazines,\nwith the features of \"The Genius of the Age\"--as he was often\nstyled--Lucien Apleon.\n\n\"My name,\" said the smiling visitor, \"is Lucien Apleon.  As editor of a\ngreat journal like the 'Courier,' you know who I am when you know my\nname, even though we have never met before.  You were so busy, so\nabsorbed, when I came in that I did not so much as cough to announce my\npresence.\"\n\nRalph longed to ask him if he came through the door, or how, since he\nhad heard no sound.  But he did not put his question, but replied:\n\n\"Who has not heard and read of Lucien Apleon, 'The Genius of the Age,'\nsage, savant, artist, sculptor, poet, novelist, a giant in intellect,\nthe Napoleon of commercial capacity, the croesus for wealth, and master\nof all courts and diplomacy.  But I had not heard that you were in\nEngland, the last news _par'_ of you which I read, gave you as at that\nwonderful city, the New Babylon, more wonderful, I hear, than any of\nthe former cities of its name and site.\"\n\nRalph had talked more than he needed to have done, but he wanted time\nto recover his mental balance, for his nerves had been considerably\nstartled by the suddenness, the uncanniness of his visitor's appearance.\n\nThere was a curious quizzical, mocking look in the eyes of Apleon while\nRalph was speaking.  The latter noted it and had an uncomfortable\nconsciousness that the mocking-eyed visitor was reading him like a book.\n\n\"I only landed to-day,\" replied Apleon.\n\n\"Steamer?\" asked Ralph.\n\n\"No, by a new aerial type of my own invention,\" replied Apleon.  \"It\nbrought me from Babylon to London in about as many minutes as it would\nhave occupied the best aeronaut, days, by the best machines of a year\nago.\"\n\nHe laughed.  There was a curious sound in the laugh, it was mocking yet\nmusical, it was eerie yet merry.  Involuntarily Ralph thought of\nGrieg's \"Dance of the Imps,\" and Auber's overture \"Le Domino Noir.\"\n\n\"But I have not yet explained my object in calling upon you,\" the\nvisitor went on.  \"I have, of course, seen this morning's 'Courier,'\nand have been intensely interested, and, will you mind, if I say it,\namused.\"\n\n\"Amused, Mr. Apleon?\" cried Ralph.\n\n\"Yes, intensely amused,\" went on the mocking-eyed visitor.  \"I do not\nmean with the issue as regards its general contents, it was to the\n'Prophet's Chair' column that I alluded.\"\n\nRalph, regarding him questioningly, inclined his head, without speaking.\n\n\"Do you really believe, Mr. Bastin,\" went on the visitor, \"what you\nhave written in that column?  Do you really believe that a certain\nsection of Christians, out of every one of the visible Evangelical\nchurches of this land, and elsewhere, have been translated into the\nair?  That the Holy Spirit of the Christian New Testament, the third\nPerson of the Trinity, whom that same New Testament declares was sent\nto the earth when the Nazarene Christ went home to His Father--please,\nnote, Mr. Bastin, that I am using the terms of the orthodox Christian,\nenough I tell you frankly I do not believe a word of the jumble which,\nfor nearly two thousand years, has been accepted as a divinely inspired\nRevelation to so-called fallen man?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" replied Ralph, and his voice rang with a rare assurance, and\nevery line of his face held a wondrous nobility.  \"Yes, I believe it\nall.  If I had not been a blind, conceited fool of a sinner, a week\nago, I should have known that all this, and much more was true, and I\nshould have found my way in penitence and faith to the feet of the\nNazarene, of Jesus Christ the World's Redeemer, and, finding pardon for\nmy sin, as I should have done, I should have been made one of the\nChurch of God, as my friend, and Editor-in-chief, Tom Hammond, had\ndone.  And, had I listened to him, I should now have been with those\nblessed translated ones of whom I have written in that article of which\nyou speak, Mr. Apleon.\n\n\"I sat in that chair where you now sit,\" Ralph went en.  \"Mr. Hammond,\nin his eagerness to win me to Christ, leant forward over this desk--he\nwas sitting where I am--to lay his hand on my wrist, when, with angry\nimpatience, I leaped to my feet, and declaring that he must be going\nout of his head, I swung round on my heel.\n\n\"Instantly there fell upon the room an eerie stillness.  I swung back\non my heel to reply to my friend, but his chair was empty, he was\ngone--gone to the Christ whom he loved, 'caught up in the air' to meet\nhis Lord, where all those other missing saints have been taken.\n\n\"Yes, yes, Mr. Apleon, a thousand times yes, to your question, 'do I\nbelieve all that I have written there in that article.'  Here in this\nlittle pamphlet--\"  He laid his hand, as he spoke, upon a small book\nthat had been Tom Hammond's, which bore the title \"THE SECOND COMING OF\nOUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.  Systematically arranged from passages in the\nHoly Scriptures, for Students, Teachers, and others.  By the Rev.\nRobert Middleton.\"\n\n\"Here, in this little book,\" he went on, \"there is not only set out\nwith the most luminous clearness, with the actual Bible texts, all that\nI have written in that article, but also many other truths and texts\nwhich have already been literally fulfilled during the last forty-eight\nhours--even as the book said that they would be.\"\n\nWith the old mocking, quizzical smile, the handsome Apleon interrupted\nhim, asking:\n\n\"What do you mean by the _real_ Church of God?  The Romish Church, The\nGreek Church, The Anglican Church or any one of the multitude of\ndissenting churches?\"\n\nIt was Ralph's turn to smile now, as he said:\n\n\"None of those churches could be called THE CHURCH OF GOD.  The _true_,\nthe _real_ church was composed of true believers, men and women who had\nbeen born again by the Spirit of God, and who, numbered among every\nsection of so-called Christians--and some who were wholly\nunattached--made up in their wide-world entirety the true Church of\nGod, the Bride of Christ.\"\n\n\"And what,\" asked Apleon, \"of the rest, the vast bulk of the\nworshippers at the various churches?  What is their fate to be?\"\n\n\"God only knows!\" replied Bastin.  \"Some, at least, have already\nsought, and found God, or believe they have, even as I have sought, and\nbelieve that I have found God.  But the vast bulk of the people already\nseem to be rollicking in a curious sense of non-restraint.  I remember\nsome years ago, hearing a lady say that visiting the houses of one of\nthe worst streets in Winchester, and speaking to the people as to their\neternal welfare, she found one woman particularly hardened.  To this\nwoman she said: 'But, my dear sister, think of what it will be to be\neternally lost, to be separated from God, and from all that is pure and\ngood, for ever, and in a state and place which the Bible calls Hell.'\nAnd the woman laughed, as she said: 'Well, there's one thing, I shall\nnot be lonely there, for I shall have all my neighbours around me, for\nevery one in this street is on the same track as me.'\"\n\nA sardonic smile curled the full lips of Apleon, as he said:\n\n\"Poor deluded soul!  For if there is such a place as that Hell, that\nunderworld of lost souls of which your Bible speaks, and declares that\nit was prepared for the Devil and his angels, and that woman and her\nneighbours find themselves there, they will realize that hell, for its\nlost, is the loneliest spot in the universe, since each soul will hate\nthe other and will live alone, apart in its own hideous realm of\nanguish and remorse.\"\n\nLifting his eyes to his visitor's face, as the latter delivered himself\nto this strange speech, Bastin was startled to note the expression on\nthe handsome face.  The eyes, unutterably sad for one instant, turned\nsuddenly to savage hate, the mouth was as cruel as death, the eyes grew\nbaleful, like the eyes of a snake that is being whipped to death.\n\nHe was startled even more by the tones of his voice when he said:\n\n\"And what of the Anti-christ of whom you have spoken and written?  Do\nyou believe what you have written?\"\n\n\"I most certainly do,\" replied Ralph.\n\nAgain the sardonic smile filled all Apleon's face as he returned:\n\n\"Then if all that you say and write be true, as regards the coming\nAnti-christ, and you continue to wear the late editor's mantle when you\nwrite 'The Prophet's chair' articles, how long do you suppose that that\npowerful _super_-man, the Anti-christ of your belief, will let you\nalone.  If he is to be so powerful, and if the devil is to energize\nhim, as you say;--even as you profess to believe that he has called\ninto being--is now actually dwelling on the earth, though invisible,\nand all his angels (demons, I believe they are called in the Bible) are\nmoving about invisibly among the people on the earth, among the people\nof this wonderful London, if all this, I say, be so, how long do you\nsuppose you will be allowed, by his Satanic Majesty, to ply your trade\nof warner of the peoples?  Why, man, your life is not worth the snap of\na finger?\"\n\nRalph smiled.  The smile transfigured his face, even as the same sort\nof smile transfigured the faces of the martyrs of old time, beginning\nwith Stephen.\n\n\"I care not how long I live,\" he replied.  \"The only care I have now is\nto be true to my convictions, true to my God.\"\n\nThe telephone rang at that instant.  \"Excuse me one moment, Mr.\nApleon,\" he said, turning to the instrument.\n\nThere followed a few moments exchanges on the 'phone, then replacing\nthe receiver he turned.  But his visitor was gone.\n\n\"That's curious!\" he muttered.  \"I did not hear a sound of his going,\nany more than I did of his coming.  Uncanny, eerie, creepy, almost!\"\n\nThere was a tap at the door.  \"Come in!\" he called.  The messenger boy,\nCharley, entered with a sheaf of proof galleys.\n\n\"Did you see that tall gentleman pass out, Charley?\" he asked.  \"Did he\ngo down stairs, or into one of the other offices?\"\n\n\"Tall gennelman, sir?  There aint bin no one come along this way, sir,\nnobody couldn't pass my little hutch wivout me a seein' on 'em.  I\nain't been out no wheres, an' I knows no one aint come by--least ways,\nnot this way, not past my place.\"\n\n\"If any tall gentleman does come up, Charley, show him in to me, at\nonce please.\"\n\nRalph had had time, during Charley's extended answer, to recover\nhimself from the amaze that the boy's first sentence has produced in\nhim.\n\n\"That's all, Charley!\" he added, turning to his desk.\n\nThe boy gave him a curious, puzzled look, lingered for the fraction of\na second, then slowly turned and left the office.\n\nWhen the door had closed behind him, Ralph, who had _felt_ all that had\npassed in that moment of the boy's hesitancy, though he had purposely\nrefrained from looking up, lifted his head and glanced around him.\n\n\"If I did not know better,\" he murmured, \"I should suppose that the\nwhole incident was but a dream, or hallucination.\"\n\nA perplexed look filled his face, as he continued:\n\n\"What does it all mean?\"\n\nAgain, in a flash, the memory of that Judas sermon swept back over him,\nand the startling statement recurred to him \"Somewhere, even as I have\npreached of him, and as you have listened, there is, I believe, a young\nman of noble stature, exceedingly attractive, wealthy, fascinating,\nbewitching in fact, since 'all the world will wonder after him'--yes,\nsomewhere in the world, perhaps in this very city where we are now\ngathered, is the young man who, presently, when our Lord has come, when\nthe Church, and the Holy Spirit are gone, will manifest himself as the\nAnti-christ.\"\n\nComing back at this particular moment, Ralph asked himself: \"Is Lucien\nApleon the Anti-christ?\"\n\nHe paused an instant, then, as a sudden startling sense of assurance of\nthe fact swept into his soul he cried:\n\n\"He is!  I have seen the Anti-christ!\"\n\nFor nearly an hour he sat on his chair, his mind wrapped in deep\nthought, and occasionally referring to a book of prophecy which Tom\nHammond had evidently deeply studied.\n\nAt the end of the hour, he bowed his head upon his hands, and held\nsilent communion with God, seeking wisdom to write and speak and live\nthe Truth.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n\"TO THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL\"\n\nThe next day was Sunday.  It was also the first Sunday of the month.\nAs he bathed and dressed, Ralph found himself wondering whether the\nchurches and chapels would be filled, whether the awe and fear that had\nfallen upon so many Christian professors during the first hours after\nthe \"Rapture,\" would drive them to the churches.\n\n\"The first of the month,\" he mused.  \"The Lord's Supper has been the\norder of the day in most places.  I wonder if it will be celebrated\nto-day?\"\n\n\"_Until He come_!\" he mused on.  \"He _has_ come, so that the Lord's\nSupper, as part of the worship of the churches is concerned, can have\nno further meaning.  Will any attempt be made to celebrate it, to-day,\nI wonder?\"\n\nEvery available moment of the fateful week that had just passed he had\noccupied in deep reading the prophetic scriptures referring to The\nComing of the Lord, and the events which follow.  He had also studied\ndeeply every book on the subject which he could secure, that was likely\nto help him to understand the position of affairs.  Again and again, he\nhad said to himself: \"How could I have been such a fool? a journalist,\na bookman, a lover of research, professing to have the open mind which\nshould be the condition of every man of my trade, and yet never to have\nstudied my Bible, never to have sought to know what all the startling\nevents of the past decade, pointed to.  Surely, surely, Tom Carlyle was\nright about we British--'mostly fools.'\"\n\nAt breakfast he ate and drank only sufficient to satisfy the sense of\nneed.  Previous to \"The Rapture\" he had been a bit of an Epicure, now\nhe scarcely noted what he ate or drank.\n\nAlmost directly his meal was finished, he left the house.  The\njournalistic instinct was strong enough within him to make him desire\nto see what changes, if any, would be apparent in London on this first\nSunday after the momentous event that had so recently come upon the\nworld.\n\nTurning out of the quiet square where his lodgings were, he was\ninstantly struck by a new tone in the streets.  There was an utter\nabsence of the old-time \"Sabbath\" sense.\n\nThe gutterways were already lined with fruit and other hawkers, their\ncoarse voices, crying their wares, making hideous what should have been\na Sunday quiet.\n\nIt was barely ten, yet already many of the Tea Rooms were open, and\nmost of them seemed thronged, whole families, and pleasure-parties\ntaking breakfast, evidently.\n\nHe passed a large and popular theatre, across the whole front of which\nwas a huge, hand-painted announcement, \"Matinee at 2, this afternoon.\nPerformance to-night 7-45.  New Topical song entitled \"The Rapture,\" on\nthe great event of the week.  Living Pictures at both performances:\n\"The Flight of the Saints.\"\n\nRalph, in his amaze, had paused to read the full contents of the\nannouncement.  He shuddered as he took in the full import of the\nblasphemy.  Surveying the crowd that stood around the notice, he was\nstruck by the composition of the little mob.  It was anything but a\nlow-class crowd.  Many of them were evidently of the upper middle\nclass, well-dressed, and often intellectual-looking people.\n\nHe was turning to leave the spot, when a horsey-looking young fellow\nclose to him, in a voice loud enough to be heard by the whole crowd--he\nevidently meant that it should--cried:\n\n\"Well, if it's true that all the long-faced puritans have been carted\noff, vamoused, kidnapped, \"Rapturized,\" as they call it, and that now\nthere's to be no Theatre Censor, and every one can do as they like,\nwell then, good riddance to the kill-joys, I say.\"\n\n\"And so say all of us,\" sang a voice, almost everyone present joining\nin the song.\n\nWhen twenty yards off Ralph could hear the blasphemy ringing out \"The\nDevil's a jolly good fellow, and so say all of us!\"\n\n\"What will London be like in a month's time!\" he mused.\n\nHe moved on quickly, but even as he went the thought thrust itself upon\nhim, that half London, for some reason or the other, was abroad in the\nstreets unusually early.  His own objective was a great Nonconformist\nchurch, where one of London's most popular and remarkable preachers had\nministered.  He had been one of the comparatively few whose ministry\nhad been characterized by a close adherence to the Word of God, and an\noccasional solemn word of expository warning and exhortation _anent_\nthe \"Coming of the Lord.\"\n\nRalph was within a stone's throw of the great building when the\nsqueaking tones of Punchinello, reached his ears, while a deep roar of\nmany laughing voices accompanied the squeakings.  A moment more and he\nwas abreast of a crowd of many hundreds of people gathered around the\nPunch and Judy show.\n\nSick in soul at all that told of open blasphemy everywhere around him,\nhe hurried on, not so much as casting an eye at the show, though it was\nimpossible for him to miss the question and answer that rang out from\nthe show.\n\n\"Now, now Mr. Punch, where's your poor wife?  Have you done away with\nher?\"\n\n\"No,\" screamed the hook-nosed puppet, \"Not me, I aint done away with\nher, she done away with herself, she's gone and got 'Rapturized.'\"\n\nThen, above the ribald laughter of the crowd, the squeaking puppet sang:\n\n  \"Oh, p'raps she is, p'raps she aint,\n    An' p'raps she's gone to sea,\n  Or p'raps she's gone to Brigham Young\n    A Mormonite to be.\"\n\n\nRalph shivered as with chill, as he went up the steps of the great\nchurch to which he had been aiming.  It was filling fast.  Five minutes\nafter he entered, the doors had to be closed, there was not even\nstanding room.\n\nHe swept the huge densely-packed building with his keen eyes.  Many\npresent were evidently accustomed to gather there, though the bulk were\ncurious strangers.  A strange hush was upon the people, a\nhalf-frightened look upon many faces, and a general air of suspense.\n\nOnce, someone in the gallery cracked a nut.  The sound was almost as\nstartling as a pistol shot, and hundreds of faces were turned in the\ndirection of the sound.\n\nRalph noticed that the Communion table, on the lower platform under the\nrostrum was covered with white, and evidently arranged as for the\nLord's Supper.\n\nExactly at eleven, someone emerged from a vestry and passed up the\nrostrum stairs.  A moment later the man was standing at the desk.  Many\ninstantly recognized him.  It was the Secretary of the Church.\n\nA dead hush fell upon the people.\n\nThe face of the man was deathly pale, his eyes were dull and sunken.\nTwice his lips parted and he essayed to speak, but no sound escaped\nhim.  The hush deepened.\n\nThen, at last, low and husky came the words \"My dear friends--for I\nrecognize some who have been wont to gather here on the Sundays, though\nthe majority are strangers, I think.\"\n\nHis eyes slowly swept the great congregation.  \"We have, I believe,\nmany of us, gathered here this morning more by a new, strange, common\ninstinct, than by mere force of Sunday habit.  Yet, I cannot but think\nthat many of us, solemnized by the events that have transpired since\nlast Sunday, have met more in the Spirit of real seeking after God than\never we have done before.\"\n\nA few voices joined in a murmur of assent, but something like a ripple\nof mocking laughter came from others.  And one voice in the gallery\nlaughed outright--it was the man who had cracked the nut.\n\nMomentarily unnerved by that laughter the speaker paused.  Then\nrecovering himself he went on:\n\n\"Our pastor has gone; the Puritans (as we were wont to call them) are\ngone; and we know now--now that it is too late for those of us who are\n'left'--that they have been 'caught up' into the air, to be with their\nLord forever.\"\n\nHe glanced down at the white-draped communion table, as he continued:\n\n\"Our church officer has performed his usual monthly office, and has\nspread the Table for the Lord's Supper, but it dawns upon us, friends,\nhow useless, how empty is the symbol since it was only ordained 'until\nHe should come.'  He has come, and we, the unready, have been left\nbehind.\"\n\n\"Tommy Rot!\"\n\nThe expression came angrily, sneeringly from the man in the gallery,\nthe man who cracked that nut, and who had laughed so boisterously a\nmoment ago.\n\nMany eyes were turned up to the man, but no voice of reprimand came, no\ncry of \"shame!\" or of \"Turn him out,\" was raised.\n\nAll that had happened during the days of the past week, had served to\nfill many of the people gathered there that morning, with a curious\nmingling of doubt, hesitancy, fearsomeness, and uncertainty, as well as\nan unconscious growth of a new strange skepticism, and a carelessness\nthat almost amounted to recklessness.\n\n\"As it is with many more here, this morning,\" the Secretary went on,\n\"some members of my family have gone, been caught up--\"\n\n\"Aviated!\" laughed a ribald voice, and this time it came from another\npart of the building.\n\nDisregarding the interruption, the secretary went on:\n\n\"My wife has gone--\"  His voice shook with the deep emotion that\nstirred him, and for a moment he was too moved to speak.  Then\nrecovering himself with an effort he continued:\n\n\"My daughter, too, who against my wish had offered herself as a Foreign\nMissionary, has gone.  Both wife and daughter lived in the spirit of\nexpectancy of the Coming of Christ into the air.  Now they are with\nHim, to be with Him for ever.\"\n\nThe ribald voice that had last interrupted, again broke into the\nSecretary's touching words.  This time the interrupter roared out a\nstanza or two of a wretched song:\n\n  \"Will no one tell me where they're gone,\n  My bursting heart with grief is torn,\n  I wish I never had been born,\n    I've lost, I've lost my vife.\"\n\n\nA hundred or more voices roared with laughter.  The devil of blasphemy\nwas growing bolder.\n\nBut in the silence that immediately followed the laughter, the\nSecretary went on again:\n\n\"I have been a deeply _religious_ man, even as Nicodemus and Paul were,\nbefore their conversion.  But now that it is too late to share in the\nbliss of the glorious Translation, I have discovered that Religion,\nwithout Christ, without the Regeneration of the New Birth, is evidently\nuseless, otherwise, I, with scores of others in this church, this\nmorning, who have, for years, listened to a full-orbed gospel from our\nGod-filled translated pastor, would be now with those of our loved ones\nwho have 'ascended up on high.'\"\n\nHe paused for the briefest fraction of a second, a look of keenest\nanguish filled his face, his eyes grew moist with unshed tears, and\nwere full of appeal, of enquiry, as he swept the great assembly, crying:\n\n\"There must be thousands upon thousands left in our land, who, like\nmyself, deceived themselves, and thus, unwittingly deceived others, and\nin whose souls there rises the cry: 'How can we find God?  Who will\nshow us the way?'\n\n\"Friends, I have searched my New Testament from end to end.  I have\nbeen up two whole nights, and I have read the New Testament through\nfrom Matthew to Revelation, twice.  But I can find no provision for the\nposition I find myself in.  I can find no guidance as to how to be\nsaved.  The whole situation is too solemn, too awful for any fooling.\nDoes anyone here know?  Can anyone here tell us how we may find God,\nnow that the salt of the earth--the real Christians are gone, and now,\ntoo, that the Holy Spirit who, of old time--not yet a full week, but it\nseems an eternity--led souls to God through Christ.\"\n\nThere was something so solemn, so pathetic in the man's manner and\nutterance, that even the ribald fools who had previously interrupted,\nwere silent.\n\nThe hush was intense.  The ticking of the clock could be heard\ndistinctly.\n\nImpelled by a power which he could not have defined or described, Ralph\nBastin rose to his feet.\n\nThe hush deepened.  Then a voice broke the silence, crying:\n\n\"Bastin, editor of 'The Courier'!\"\n\nHe was very pale, but the light of a rare courage flashed in his eyes.\nHe acknowledged the recognition of himself by an inclination of the\nhead.  Then amid a strange hush he began to speak, his voice husky, at\nfirst, rapidly clearing as he went on:\n\n\"Friends, I take it that this is the most momentous Sunday that has\never been, since the first one--the day of the resurrection of the\nChrist.  Our friend who has just spoken has surely voiced the question\nof many hearts here this morning, and many other troubled hearts the\nwide world over.\n\n\"Let me say, right here, that my friend and colleague, Mr. Tom Hammond,\nthe originator and late editor of 'The Courier,' was in the very act of\nexplaining the wonderful, expected return of Christ (expected by him\nthough scoffed at by myself) when he was 'caught up' from my very\npresence, and then I knew what a fool I had been to neglect God and His\nsalvation.\"\n\nThe nut-cracking interrupter in the gallery, with a burst of laughter,\nbegan mockingly to sing the old revival chorus, \"Come to Jesus, come to\nJesus, come to Jesus, just now, just----\"\n\n\"Silence! you blasphemous, ribald fool!\"  The words leaped from the\nlips of Ralph Bastin, in a tone of command that literally awed the\ninterrupter.  The effect, too, upon the hesitating, vacillating mass of\npeople was, for the moment at least, to arouse their sympathy with\nRalph, and a little murmur of applause followed.\n\nAt the same time a soldier in uniform, a man of giant proportions, who\nwas sitting almost immediately behind the disturber, rose in his seat,\nand addressing the man in front of him, cried, in a stentorian voice:\n\n\"See here, mouthy, we're about fed up with your gas, so if you give us\nso much as one wag of that cursed red rag of yours, I'll pick you up\nand snap you in half across my knee, as I would snap a stick.\"\n\nThis time the applause broke out all over the crowded church.  When it\nceased, Ralph standing straight as a larch, and looking up at the\nsoldier, gave a military salute, as he said: \"Thank you, brave soldier.\"\n\nComing back to his audience, he went on, as if there had been no\ninterruption:\n\n\"I, too, like the gentleman who addressed us just now, have read the\nwhole of the Bible through, and the New Testament _twice_, and I can\nfind no _definite_ provision or Revelation for those who are left\nbehind--that is as to the _how_, I mean, of salvation.  Yet that there\nare to be many saved during the next seven years, is evident, since\nthere is to be a great multitude come out of _The Great Tribulation_,\nand thousands of these will be martyrs for God, refusing to wear the\nMark of the Beast.\n\n\"In one of the pamphlets I have been studying on 'The second coming of\nthe Lord,' I have found this statement, that Christ, during His\nministry, preached the Gospel _of the Kingdom_, which is explained as\nreferring to the fact that, as a Jew, as the Messiah, He came to His\nown people the Jews, the chosen _earthly_ people of God, and that if\nthey would have accepted Him as their Messiah, His Kingdom--with\nHimself reigning as King--might have been set up there and then.  But\nthey rejected Him, yes, even when Peter, at Pentecost, after the\nAscension of Christ, made the final offer in those wonderful words of\nhis.\n\n\"As a nation, they rejected Him, rejected their Lord and King, and\nhenceforth, until He should come again.  (He came last week, as we\nknow, now that it is too late for us to share in the glory of that\ncoming.)  Until that coming, as I said, the Gospel to be preached was\nto be the 'Gospel of the Grace of God,' and not the 'Gospel of the\nKingdom.'  'The Gospel of the Grace of God,' included all peoples,\nGentile as well as Jew, while 'the Gospel of the Kingdom,' in its first\npreaching, was especially a message to the Jew.\n\n\"Now, friends, since there appears to be no _special_ Revelation left\nas to how men and women are to be saved, I have been forced to the\nconclusion that we must go back to the Old Testament word: 'Seek ye the\nLord'--'Call upon the Name of the Lord'--'Trust ye in the Lord'--'Come\nnow and let us reason, saith the Lord.  Though your sins be as scarlet,\nthey shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they\nshall be as wool.'  'The Lord is nigh unto them who are of broken\nheart, and _saveth_ such as be of a _Contrite_ spirit.'\n\n\"I have taken my own stand upon this, that God, the God of the Old\nTestament, is the same God, who pities like a father, and that if we\nconfess our sin, and witness a true confession, He will forgive us our\nsin, and though we can never be part of that wondrous _Bride_ of\nChrist, whom, last week He caught up to Himself into the Heavenlies,\nyet we may be eternally saved.  And, friends, whether I am right or\nwrong, I am daily pleading the Name of Jesus Christ in all my\napproaches to God.  I plead the Blood of Jesus Christ, and the power of\nthat Blood, to save me; for, as far as I understand myself, in this\nmatter, my belief, my trust is the same as that which inspired the\nsaints who were translated at the 'Rapture'--as that event has come to\nbe called.\n\n\"In my studies during the past week--would God I had been wise, and\ngiven myself to all this a month ago, I should then have shared in the\nglory of that Rapturous event of which all our minds are so full.\n\n\"But, as I was saying, in my studies during the past week, I have seen\nthat in Revelation Seven, in the account of those who are to be saved\n_during_ the seven years of the present dispensation, (and which has\njust begun) that they 'have washed their robes and made them white _in\nthe blood of the Lamb_.'  So that though I am not able to reduce my\nstanding to an actual theological position--statement--yet I pin my\nsoul, my faith on the Eternal character of God, and on the efficacy of\nthe Blood of Jesus, as shown in Revelation Seven, fourteen.\"\n\nHe paused for an instant, and his eyes swept the great assembly\nsorrowfully, sadly, as he went on:\n\n\"But it is forced upon me that what is done by us, in this matter of\nseeking God, must be done by us _now, at once_.  Every hour increases\nthe danger of delay because the powers of evil, of the Antichrist, are\nalready growing more and more rampant, more and more pronounced.\nPresently, friends, we know not but that any hour or even moment now,\nthe awful delusion of the Antichrist lie, may be actually formulated\ninto speech and print, and it will be so almost universally absorbed by\nmankind, and its influence be so pervading, so saturating, in every\nclass, of society, that it will every hour become harder, more\ndifficult for the individual soul to turn to God.\"\n\nHe paused again for one instant.  Then startlingly, suddenly, the words\n\"Great God!\" leaped from his lips.  They sounded like a mighty sob.\n\n\"Great God!\" he repeated with an anguish that awed the people.  \"The\ngreat mass of people in London, are already mocking God.  They laugh at\nthe notion of there being a God, of there being any Retribution.  The\ngreat mass of the people are ripe for anything, even for a public,\nofficial denial of the very existence of God.  Deluded, they will\nbelieve any lie, THE FOUL LIE.\n\n\"How long is it since, in France, in the Revolution, the leading men,\nthe 'flower' of that capricious nation, carried in triumph in grand\nprocession the most beautiful harlot of Paris, to the Cathedral of\nNotre Dame, and, unveiling and kissing her before the high altar,\nproclaimed her as the 'Goddess of Reason,' exhorting the multitude of\npeople to forget all the childish things that they had been taught as\nto the thunders of the wrath of God, for God was not, and had never\nbeen.\n\n\"And all that happened while the 'salt of the earth,' was abroad, and\nwhile that great, divine restrainer of evil, the Holy Spirit, the third\nPerson of the Trinity, was still upon the earth exercising His\nrestraint.\n\n\"And, in a week from to-day, I believe it will be absolutely impossible\nto get a gathering like this.  The world, the Flesh, the Devil, the\nAntichrist, will have almost absolute sway, and if any of us will live\nto God, we must be prepared to suffer the direst persecution, and all\nthe horrors of the Great Tribulation, with its thousands of martyrs,\nwill be the portion of those who will cleave to God, and flout\nAntichrist.\"\n\nA deep, sullen growl, like that of some huge savage beast, rose here\nand there from a number of dissenters to these predictions.\n\nRalph lifted his head proudly, and fearlessly for his God, as he cried:\n\n\"There rises the first growl of the slumbering demon of Antichrist,\nwhich, only too soon, shall possess almost the whole world.  Soon, a\nyear, or two, less than that, doubtless.  Antichrist will dominate the\nearth's peoples.  None will be able to trade, to buy or sell, unless\nthey bear on their forehead or their _right_ hand, the Mark of the\nBeast.  What will that mark be?  I cannot tell.  I do not know, no one\nsave Antichrist, and the Devil who has incarnated him, can as yet know,\nI think.\"\n\nAgain that growl rose from the throats of some of the listeners.  This\ntime it was deeper, fuller more voices joined in it, and the savage\nnote was more pronounced.\n\nSuddenly, a mighty roar of thousands of voices, mingled with the blare\nof brass instruments penetrated into the building from the street.\nThere followed, instantly, a general rising to their feet, and a rush\nof the people to the exits.  The crush at the exits was terrible.\nScreams of women mingled with the hoarse cursings of men--men who had\nnever uttered an oath before, found their mouth filled with hideous,\nblasphemous oaths.  It was as if the very devil himself had suddenly\npossessed the crowd.\n\nRalph found himself alongside the Secretary of the church, the man who\nhad preceded him in speaking.  The pair watched and listened for a\nmoment while noisily, slowly, painfully the people passed out of the\nbuilding.\n\nInvoluntarily there sprang to Ralph's lips, and, before he realized it,\nhe was uttering the words:\n\n\"The whole herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and was\nchoked.\"\n\nThe two men were strangers, yet as they turned and faced each other, by\nsome common impulse they clasped hands.  For one instant it looked as\nthough each would have spoken.  Then, as though some strange power had\ntied their tongues, they moved on silently, side by side, down the wide\naisle of the church, and passed out through the entrance doors of the\nnow empty building.\n\nThe streets were filled with surging masses of people, and there was a\nglare of ruddy flames, while dense volumes of smoke poured into the\nupper air from the first of two huge cars drawn by hundreds of excited\nmen, boys, and even women and girls.\n\nIn the center of the platform of the first car was a huge, altar-like\nconstruction in polished iron or steel.  The center of the altar was\nevidently a deep hollow cauldron, into which a score of men, costumed\nas satyrs, were pitchforking Bibles.  The four sides of the\nAltar-cauldron had open bars, so that, fanned on every side by the\ndouble draught of the car's motion, and the fairly stiff breeze that\nwas blowing, the furnace roared fiercely, fed, as it incessantly was by\nthe copies of God's Word.\n\nHundreds of wildly-excited men and women--many seemed\nsemi-drunken--attired in every conceivable grotesqueness of costume,\nand forming a kind of open-air fancy-dress ball, disported themselves\nshamelessly about the cauldron car, and the triumphal car that followed\nin its wake.\n\nThe latter was a gorgeous structure, finished in gold, purple, and\nimitation white marble.  Its center was a kind of _tableaux vivant_.\nOn one side was an effigy of a parsonic kind of man, crucified head\ndownwards upon a cross.  A second side showed a theatre front with a\nstaring announcement \"_seven_ day performances.\"  A third side showed a\nfigure of \"Bacchus\" crowned with vine-leaves and grape-bunches.  A\nfourth side showed an entrance to a Law Court, with an announcement:\n\"Closed Eternally, for since there is no marriage, there is no divorce.\"\n\nAbove all this was a golden throne, and in a deep purple-plush-covered\nchair sat a florid, coarsely-beautiful woman, with long hair of golden\nhue hanging down upon her shoulders and blowing in the breeze.  She was\nliterally naked, save for a ruffle of pink muslin about her waist.\nUpon her head was a crown, in her right hand she held a gilded crozier.\n\nThe most wanton, hideous licentiousness was the order of the hour among\nthe mob of fancy-costumed people.\n\nRalph Bastin and his companion followed in the wake of the foaming,\nraging sea of semi-mad people.\n\n\"The French Revolution business over again,\" said Ralph--he had to\nshout into his friend's ear to be heard.\n\nHis companion nodded an assent, then bawled back:\n\n\"Whither are they bound, I wonder?\"\n\nRalph pointed to a banner bearing the inscription.  \"To St. Pauls.\"\n\nThe procession swept on, and seven minutes later the cars were rounded\nup in front of the open space before the Cathedral.\n\nA score of policemen had managed to muster on the upper step of the\nflight.  But the rush of the mob was irresistible.  They took entire\npossession of the steps and all the open space around even to the head\nof Ludgate Hill.\n\nRalph had got separated from his companion, and found himself swept\nclose up to the great triumphal car.  Above him seated smilingly on her\npurple throne, in all her shameless nakedness, was the beautiful form\nof the foul souled harlot.  Her gilded crozier was upheld between her\nnaked knees, and now, in her right hand she held a goblet of champagne,\njust passed up to her.\n\nA bugle sounded for silence.  The hush was instantaneous.  Then as she\nheld the goblet high aloft, her clear, shrill voice rang out in the\ntoast she gave:\n\n\"To the World, the Flesh, and the Devil!\"\n\nShe drained the sparkling draught, and tossed the goblet down into the\nupraised hand of a handsome, but dissolute-looking man, who, attired in\nthe theatrical idea of Mephistopheles, appeared to be a kind of Master\nof Ceremonies.\n\nA mighty roar of applause, mingled with cries of \"Dolly Durden!  Dear\nlittle Dolly Durden!\" accompanied the drinking of the toast.\n\nAgain the bugle rang out for silence, and amid a hush as before,\nMephistopheles shouted:\n\n\"The Sunday of the Puritans is dead and _damned_!  Their Bible is\nburned and a dead letter!\"\n\nHe pointed, as he uttered the last sentence, to the Satyrs who were\npiling the last of their stock of Bibles into the fiery furnace of the\ncauldron-altar.\n\nHis blasphemies were greeted with a roar of applause.  Then, as he\nobtained a comparative silence by the raising of his hand, he yelled:\n\n\"To Hyde Park.\"\n\nThe band struck up \"Good St. Anthony,\" and the monster procession,\nswept down Ludgate Hill, hundreds of throats belching out the words of\nthe song, to the music of the band:\n\n  \"St. Anthony sat on a lowly stool,\n    A large black book he held in his hand,\n  Never his eyes from the page he took,\n    With steadfast soul the page he scanned.\n  The Devil was in his best humour that day,\n    That ever his Highness was known to be in,--\n  That's why he sent out his imps to play\n    With sulphur, and tar, and pitch, and resin:\n  They came to the saint in a motley crew,\n    Twisted and twirl'd themselves about,--\n  Imps of every shape and hue,\n    A devilish, strange, and rum-looking rout.\n  Yet the good St. Anthony kept his eyes\n    So firmly fixed upon his book,\n  Shouts nor laughter, sighs nor cries,\n    Never could win away his look.\"\n\n\nVerse after verse belched forth from the now more or less raucous\nthroats of the blasphemous mob, until, with unholy unctiousness,\nreaching the last verse but one, they screamed laughingly, vilely:\n\n  \"A thing with horny eyes was there--\n    With horny eyes just like the dead,\n  While fish-bones grew instead of hair\n    Upon his bald and skinless head.\n  Last came an imp--how unlike the rest,--\n    A lovely-looking female form,\n  And while with a whisper his cheek she press'd,\n    Her lips felt downy, soft, and warm;\n  As over his shoulder she bent, the light\n    Of her brilliant eyes upon his page\n  Soon filled his soul with mild delight,\n    And the good old chap forgot his age.\n  And the good St. Anthony boggled his eyes\n    So quickly o'er his old black book,--\n  Ho!  Ho! at the corners they 'gan to rise,\n    And he couldn't choose but have a look.\n\n  \"There are many devils that walk this world,\n    Devils so meagre and devils so stout,\n  Devils that go with their tails uncurl'd,\n    Devils with horns and devils without.\n  Serious devils, laughing devils,\n    Devils black and devils white,\n  Devils uncouth, and devils polite.\n    Devils for churches, devils for revels,\n  Devils with feathers, devils with scales,\n    Devils with blue and warty skins,\n  Devils with claws like iron nails,\n    Devils with fishes' gills and fins;\n  Devils foolish, devils wise,\n    Devils great, and devils small,--\n  But a laughing woman with two bright eyes\n    Proves to be the worst devil of them all.\"\n\n\nIt was all of Hell, Hellish, and should have proved conclusively, it\nproof had been desired, that with the translation of the Church, and\nthe flight of the Holy Spirit, the last restraint upon man's natural\nlove of lawlessness had been taken away.\n\nSweeping westwards, the hideous, blasphemous procession was continually\naugmented by crowds that swarmed up from side-streets, and fell-in in\nthe rear of the marching throng.\n\nSomewhere on the route, owing to a kind of backwash of the surging\npeople, Ralph Bastin and the Secretary of the Church had become\nseparated.  At Picadilly circus they came suddenly face to face again.\n\n\"What is this foul, blasphemous movement?  What does it mean?\" asked\nthe Secretary.  \"Is this a beginning of _organized_ lawlessness on the\npart of the Anti-christ?\"\n\n\"I think not,\" replied Ralph.  \"I should rather say that it was a bit\nof wanton outrage of all the decencies of ordinary life, and arranged\nby some of the rude fellows--male and female--of the baser sort.  You\nnoticed, of course, that most of those immediately connected with the\ntwo cars, looked like the drinking, smoking, sporting fellows who are\nthe _habitues_ of the music-halls and the promenades of the theatres.\"\n\nAn uproarious cheering of the mighty throng interrupted Ralph for a\nmoment.  Only those well to the front of the procession could know the\ncause of the cheering, but the whole mass of people joined in it.  As\nthe roar died away, Ralph Bastin took up the broken thread of his reply:\n\n\"Yet, for all I have just said, I feel it in my bones as Mrs. Beecher\nStowe's old negress 'mammy' used to say, that this foul demonstration\non this golden Sunday morning, is the unauthorized unofficial beginning\nof the Anti-christ movement.\"\n\nThere was a couple of hundred yards between the tail of the actual\nprocession, and Ralph and his companion.  Hundreds of people thronged\nthe sidewalks, but the road was fairly clear, and along the gutter-way\nthere swept a gang of boys with coarse, raucous laughter,\nkicking--football fashion--two or three of the half-burned Bibles that\nhad fallen from the cauldron-altar on the car.\n\nThe church Secretary visibly shuddered at the sacrilege.  A pained look\nshot into Ralph Bastin's face, as he said:\n\n\"Such wanton, open sacrilege as that could only have become possible by\nthe gradual decay of reverence for the word of God, brought about\nlargely by the so-called 'Higher critics' of the last thirty years, the\nmen who broke Spurgeon's heart, the Issachars of the nineteenth and\nearly twentieth century, those 'knowing ones' who, like Issachar,\nthought that they knew better than God.\"\n\nThe two men walked on together in deep talk.  Ralph learned that his\ncompanion was Robert J. Baring, principal of the great shipping firm,\nand of merchants and importers.\n\nBaring was an educated man, and of considerable culture, and Ralph and\nhe found that they had very much in common.  But that which perhaps\nconstituted the closest tie between them was the fact that both had\nlost their nearest and dearest, and were _left_ to face the coming\nhorrors of the Anti-christ reign, and the hideousness of the great\nTribulation.\n\n\"God grant,\" Ralph said once, as they talked, \"that when the moment\ncomes, as come it will, that we are called upon to stand for God, or\ndie for Him, that we may witness a good confession.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nFORESHADOWINGS.\n\nA month had elapsed since the translation of the church.  A new order\nin everything had arisen--Religious, Governmental, Social.  The spirit\nof lawlessness grew fiercer and fouler each day, it is true, yet there\nwas a supreme authority, a governmental restriction, that prevented the\nfouler, the more destructive passions of the baser kind of men and\nwomen, having full scope.\n\nA curious kind of religion had been set up in many of the churches.\nThe services were sensuous to a degree, and were a strange mixture of\nRomanism, Spiritism (demonology,) Theosophy, Materialism, and other\nkindred cults.  Almost every week some new ode or hymn was produced,\nevery sentiment of which was an applauding of man, for God was utterly\nignored, and the key-note of the Harvard college \"class Poem,\" for the\nyear 1908, became the key-note of the Sunday Song of the \"worshippers\"\nin the churches:\n\n  \"_No_ God for a gift God gave us--\n  MANKIND ALONE must save us.\"\n\n\nIt was a curious situation, since it was \"man\" worshipping himself.\nPresently, the centre of worship would shift from man, to _The_ Man of\nSin--the Anti-christ.\n\nThese religious services were held, as a rule, from twelve-thirty to\none-fifteen on the Sunday once a day only, (without any week-night\nmeetings.)  They were held at an hour when, in the old-days, the\ncongregations would have been home, or going home, from their services.\nBut this arranged lateness was due to the fact, that there had grown up\nin all sections of society an ever-increasing lateness of retiring at\nnight, coupled with a growth of indolence caused by every kind of\nsensual indulgence, not the least of which was gluttony.  Music of a\nsensuous, voluptuous character formed a chief part of the brief Sunday\nservices, and every item was loudly applauded as though the whole\naffair had been a performance rather than a professedly religious\nservice.\n\nMost of the interior arrangements in many of the old places of worship\nhad been altered.  The theatre style of thing--plush-covered tip seats,\netc.--had taken the place of the old pews and the wooden seats.  In\nmany of these Sunday services, too, people of both sexes smoked at\nwill--for smoking among women had become almost universal.\n\nThere were no Bibles, or Hymn books, the odes, etc., were printed on\ndouble sheets, after the fashion of theatre programmes, and, like them,\ncontained numerous advertisements of the Sunday matinees and evening\nperformances at the theatres, music-halls, etc.\n\nAll this had been brought about much more easily than would at first\nappear, until we remember one or two factors that had long been working\nsilently, subtly among the attendants--mere church professors--of the\nvarious places of worship, such as, the insistance on shorter services,\nand fewer--for long, before the Rapture, the unspiritual had clamoured\nfor a _single_ service of the week, that of a late Sunday morning one.\nThen for years, religious services (those of the Sunday) had grown more\nand more sensuous, unspiritual.  Every real _spiritual_ doctrine had\nfirst been denied, then expunged from the _essay_ that had largely\ntaken the place of the old-time sermon.  Again, all spiritual\nrestraints had now been taken away--the true believers, the Holy\nSpirit, every spiritually-minded, born-again pastor and clergyman.\n\nThe new Religion (it could not be called a Faith) was a universal one.\nThe powers of the Priest-craft had invented a religion of the Flesh,\nfleshy to a degree.  Every type of indulgence was permissible, so that\nmen everywhere gloried in their religion, \"having a form--but denying\nGod.\"\n\nThe performances at all theatres, music-halls, etc., had grown rapidly\nworse and worse, in character,--licentiousness, animalism,\nvoluptuousness, debauchery, these were the main features of the newer\ntype of performances.  Salome dances, and even the wildest, obscenest\ntype of the \"_can-can_\" of the French, in its most promiscuous\nlascivious forms, were common fare on the varied English stages.\n\nBut if the stage was filthy and indecent, what could be said of the\nbooks!  There was not a foulness or obscenity and indecency that was\nnot openly, shamelessly treated in the bluntest of phraseology.\nThousands of penny, two-penny, and three-penny editions of utter\nobscenity were issued daily.  And the vitiated taste of the great mass\nof the people grew voraciously by feeding upon them.\n\nMarriage was a thing of the dead past.  There had been a growth of\nfoul, subtle, hideous teaching _before_ the translation of the church.\nMarriage had been taught (in many circles) to be \"an unnecessary\nrestraint upon human liberty.\"  \"Women\"--it had been written, _absolved\nfrom shame_, shall be _owners_ of themselves.\"  \"We believe\" (the same\nwriter had written) \"in the sacredness of the family and the home, the\nlegitimacy of _every_ child, and the inalienable right of every woman\nto the absolute possession of herself.\"\n\nAll this foul seed-teaching of the days before the Translation of the\nChurch, burst into open blossom and fullest fruit when once the\nrestraint of Christian public opinion had been withdrawn from the earth.\n\nThe friendship between Ralph Bastin and Baring had grown with the days,\nand as they watched the rapid march of events, all heading towards\nultimate evil, they talked of the possible _finale_, while they\nencouraged themselves in their God.\n\nOne evening, when they met, Baring said:\n\n\"I suppose there will soon come the time when no one will be able to\ntrade without bearing \"the mark of the Beast.\"\n\n\"Some new indication that way?\" asked Ralph.\n\n\"I think so,\" Baring returned.  \"You remember that I told you that\nprevious to the taking away of the Church, the vessels of my firm had\nbeen _tentatively_ chartered for the transport of the various parts of\nthe Temple to Jerusalem.  To-day, the negotiations have been quashed by\nthose who had previously approached us.\"\n\n\"For what reason?\" asked Ralph.\n\n\"They gave no reason,\" Baring went on, \"but I have not the slightest\ndoubt, myself, that the real reason is this, that I have, of late,\ncontinually spoken warningly against Anti-christ.\"\n\n\"But how could that be known in circles purely Anti-christ?\"  Ralph's\ntones were eager; his eyes, too, were filled with a puzzled expression.\n\n\"You know,\" Baring returned, \"what we were speaking of the other night,\nthat now that the devil and his angels had been cast down from the air,\nthey are (though invisible) yet actively engaged all about us on the\nearth?\"\n\nRalph nodded assent.\n\n\"I believe, I am sure they are everywhere present.\"  Baring smiled a\nlittle sadly, as he added, his eyes sweeping the room in a swift,\ncomprehensive way: \"There may be, there probably is, one or more\npresent in this room, at this moment, their object espionage.  They\nhave doubtless been present when I have spoken against Anti-christ,\nand----\"\n\n\"Yes, but this shipping matter of which you spoke, Bob, is a _Jewish_\naffair,\" interrupted Bastin, adding:\n\n\"For I presume, since the cargoes would be composed of the Temple\nparts, that it would be financed by Jewish capitalists, religionists,\nor what not?  How then would Anti-christ have anything to do with it?\"\n\nSlowly, deliberately, almost solemnly Baring replied:\n\n\"Lucien Apleon is a Jew!\"\n\nBastin started sharply.  Some idea of what his friend meant flashed\nupon him.\n\n\"Lucien Apleon!\" he cried hoarsely.  \"But what----\"\n\nBaring broke in with: \"I believe that Lucien Apleon will presently be\n_revealed_ as the Anti-christ, and----\"\n\nThe conversation had been going on in Ralph's Editorial office.  It was\nnow interrupted by a startling call over the tape-wire, and Baring\nsuddenly realizing the hour, took a hurried temporary farewell of his\nfriend.\n\nAn hour later Ralph was seated at his table penning the \"Prophet's\nchair\" column for the next morning's issue of his paper.  It was only\nnatural, under the new order of life and thought that prevailed, that a\ndaily paper, conducted on the lines of the \"Courier,\" should drop\nheavily in circulation.   The \"Courier\" had so dropped, though it still\npaid to issue it.\n\n\"_My enemies_, the enemies of God and of righteousness,\" he murmured,\nas he took up his \"Fountain,\" (he preferred a pen to a type-writer)\n\"are, I am inclined to believe, the chief purchasers of the paper new,\nand they only buy it to see what I say from the 'Prophet's Chair.'\"\n\nFor a moment, as was now his invariable custom, before beginning his\ndaily message, he bowed his head and prayed for wisdom to write God's\nmind.\n\nWhen next he lifted his head, and put pen to paper, he wrote with great\nrapidity, and without an instant's hesitation:\n\n\"Resuming the subject of which we wrote yesterday, we tried to show\nfrom Revelation XII, that the teaching was this, that, full of rage\nbecause of his casting out from the heavens, Satan, the great Dragon,\nthe old Serpent, determined to destroy all lovers of God, that were yet\nfound among mortals.  But even Satan himself is a spirit, and 'cannot\noperate in the affairs of the world except through the minds, passions\nand activities of men.'  He needs to embody himself in earthly agents,\nand to put himself forth in earthly organisms, in order to accomplish\nhis murderous will.\n\n\"Through this wonderful Revelation of God to John, God makes known to\nus what that organism is, and how the agency and the domination of the\nenraged Dragon will be exerted in acting out his blasphemies, deceits,\nand bloody spite.  The subject is not a pleasant one, but it is an\nimportant one.  It also has features so startling and extraordinary\nthat many may think it but a wild and foolish dream.  Nevertheless it\nis imperative that we should all look at it, and understand it.  God\nhas evidently set it out for us to learn and know just how things will\neventually turn out.[1]\n\n\"John, 'in the Spirit,' finds himself stationed on the sands of the\nsea--the same great sea upon which Daniel beheld the winds striving in\ntheir fury.  He beholds a monstrous Beast rising out of the troubled\nelements.  He sees horns emerging, and the number of them is ten, and\non each horn a diadem.  He sees the heads which bear the horns, and\nthese heads are seven, and on the heads are names of blasphemy.\nPresently the whole figure of the monster is before him.  Its\nappearance is like a leopard or panther, but its feet are the feet of a\nbear, and its mouth as the mouth of a lion.  He saw also that the Beast\nhad a throne, and power, and great authority.  One of his heads showed\nmarks of having been fatally wounded and slain, but the death-stroke\nwas healed.\n\n\"He saw also the whole earth wondering after the Beast, amazed at his\nmajesty and power, exclaiming at the impossibility of withstanding it,\nand celebrating its superiority to everything.  He beheld, and the\nBeast was speaking great and blasphemous things against God,\nblaspheming His name, His tabernacle, even them that [Transcriber's\nnote: line missing from book here] tabernacle in the Heaven the\ntranslated saints), assailing and overcoming the saints on the earth,\nand wielding authority over every tribe, and people, and tongue and\nnation.  He saw also that all the dwellers on earth, whose names are\nnot written in the book of life of the Lamb slain, did worship this\nBeast.  And for forty-two months the monster holds its place and enacts\nits resistless will.\n\n\"This is the picture!  What are we to make of it?  What does it mean?\nHow are we to understand it?  It would seem to be a symbolic\npresentation of the political sovereignty of _this world at the final\ncrisis_.\n\n\"The Beast has horns, and horns represent power.  On these horns are\ndiadems, and diadems are the emblems of regal dominion.  The Beast is\nsaid to possess power, a throne, and great authority.  He makes war.\nHe exercises dominion over all tribes, and peoples, and tongues, and\nnations.  He is a monstrous Beast, including in his composition the\nfour beasts of Daniel.\n\n\"From the interpreting angel we know that Daniel's four beasts denoted\n'four kingdoms' that arose upon the earth.  The identification thus\nbecomes complete and unmistakable, that this monstrous Beast is meant\nto set before us an image of earthly sovereignty and dominion.  And if\nany further evidence of this is demanded, it may be abundantly found in\nRev. XVII. 9-17, where the same Beast is further described, and the ten\nhorns are interpreted to be 'ten kings.'\n\n\"This Beast is therefore the embodiment of this world's political\nsovereignty in its last phase, in the last years of its existence.\nDaniel's beasts were successive empires, the Babylonian, the\nMedo-Persian, the Graeco-Macedonian, and the Roman.  But the lion, the\nbear, the leopard, and the nameless ten-horned monster, each distinct\nin Daniel, are all united in one in Revelation.\n\n\"This Beast appears to be, undoubtedly, an _individual_ administration,\n_embodied in one particular man_.  Though upheld by ten kings or\ngovernments, they unite in making the Beast the one sole Arch Regent of\ntheir time.\n\n\"This he--the Beast, the Anti-christ--gets a grip of the nations, who\nwillingly submit to his rule, being under the spirit of delusion,\n'believing _the_ lie' of the Anti-christ.\n\n\"Already, we see that this confederacy of nations is being called into\nan almost sudden existence.  The seers of our nation, before this\nstrange order of things that has arisen in our midst, since the taking\naway of the church, were wont to say to certain political changes--'at\nthe back of all the known forces that have helped to bring so-and-so to\npass, there almost _seems_ to have been some unseen, unknown\nMaster-mind at work.'\n\n\"'Tis so now, and the startling events that are following each other so\nrapidly, are the product of a master-mind, the 'Man of Sin,'\nAnti-christ, the Beast who has been energized by Satan, the Old Dragon,\nwho though he has not _yet_ avowed himself, may be expected to do so\nany day or hour now.\n\n\"It will hardly be news to any one who reads this column regularly,\nthat the building of the Temple which is to be reared in Jerusalem, by\nthe Jews, who have largely returned to the 'Promised land' in unbelief,\nis being pushed on with the utmost celerity.  The fact that, for some\nyears previous to the Translation of the Church, all its parts, made to\nperfect scale, were prepared and fitted, enables the builders to erect\nthis wonderful structure with almost magical speed.\n\n\"Simultaneous with this work, there has just appeared in Jerusalem, two\nremarkable men, who would appear to be Enoch and Elijah of old.  These\nmen are witnesses for God, and are testifying against Anti-christ.\n\n\"We say that these men would _appear_ to be Enoch and Elijah, and not\nMoses and Elijah, as some, in the old days before the Rapture, had\nsupposed.  The allusion to water turned to blood, in the eleventh\nchapter of Revelation (which treats of God's two witnesses) very\nprobably led some writers to connect the _first_ of the two witnesses\nwith Moses--since Moses turned water into blood.\n\n\"The main point of identification, we think, in the case of these two\nwitnesses, however, lies in the fact that since it is appointed unto\nmen _once_ to die, the two witnesses must needs be men who have never\npassed through _mortal_ death.  _Moses did die_, hence it seems to us\nthat he was disqualified from being one of the two witnesses, both of\nwhom have presently to pass through mortal death in the streets of\nJerusalem.  Now Enoch and Elijah did not pass through mortal death,\nhence we believe the event will prove that these two witnesses are\nEnoch and Elijah.\n\n\"Each day that we pen this particular column we are conscious that it\nmay be the last we shall pen, hence our anxiety to warn all our readers\nagainst the Anti-christ, and his lie--the strong delusion of 2\nThessalonians II 12.\"\n\nFor a few moments longer Ralph wrote on in this strain, then, just as\nhe had completed the last sentence, his special Tape-wire rang him up.\nHe summoned Charley to carry his _M.S._ sheets to the comp. room.  With\na word to his Secretary, (who was divided from him by one thickness of\nwall only, communication being by a 'phone,) he turned to his Tape.\n\n\n\n[1] The Apocalypse, by Joseph A. Seiss, D.D. p. p. 401.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nCRUEL AS THE GRAVE!\n\nLucien Apleon's eyes held the cold, cruel malignity of a snake.  His\nbrows were cold, straight, unruffled.  His smile held the polished\nbrutality of the most Mephistophelian Mephistopheles.\n\nJudith Apleon knelt at his feet, her beautiful face working painfully.\nA smile as cruel as his mouth crept into his eyes as he noted her\ngrovelling, as he watched the anguish in her face.\n\nShe shuddered as she saw that smile creep into his eyes.  She had seen\nit before--more than once.  The first time had been among the glorious\nmountains of her beautiful Hungarian home.  An old peasant woman, with\nthe reputation of a witch, had scowled upon him, and had uttered a\ncurse on him.  The spot where the three had met was in a lonely pass.\nAt the utterance of the curse he had cut the poor old hag down, with\none fierce slash of his heavy riding whip.  She had howled for mercy,\nand for reply he flogged the poor frail old prostrate form until life\nhad fled, then, with a lifting spurn of his foot, he had hurled the\nbody over the edge of that mountain pass, into the unknown depths of\nthe ravine beyond.  And all the time his eyes had smiled, as they\nsmiled now--and Judith shuddered, for the smile was as cruel as the\ngrave, and was a reflection of Hell.\n\nShe knew the diabolical cruelty which lay hidden behind that smile, and\nremembering the fate of those upon whom he had bent that smile, she\nsickened with a shuddering fear of her own life.\n\nThey had quarreled, that is to say she had _tried_ to thwart him in a\ntrifling thing.  She hardly, herself, realized _what_ he was, or the\npower he possessed.\n\n\"Lucien,\" and her voice shook with the agony which filled her, with the\nfear that had her in its shuddering grip.  \"Lucien, don't look like\nthat at me.\"\n\nWith an affrighted scream she cried: \"Don't!  Don't!  Lucien!  No one\non whom I ever saw you look, as you look now, ever lived an hour,\nand----.\"\n\nHis gaze of diabolical hate hypnotized her.  She wanted to take her\neyes from his, but could not.\n\nHe made her no audible reply.  He only smiled on.  A faint cry, like\nthe low scream of a terrified coney, escaped her.  Her face paled until\nit was like the grey-white of a corpse.\n\n\"Spare me, Lucien, spare me----.\"\n\nShe would have said more, but the chill of his hellish smile froze the\nwords upon her lips.\n\nHe never once changed his attitude.  His left elbow rested on the\ncorner of the mantel, the fingers of his right hand played with the\ngold watch-guard he wore.\n\nA full minute elapsed, then with a cry of passionate, painful entreaty,\nshe lifted her beautiful clasped hands, and wringing them in agony,\ncried:\n\n\"Lucien--Lucien--.\"  Then a sob choked her.\n\nFor another long minute there was a tomb-like silence.  He never moved\na muscle of his face.  The chill of the smile in his eyes deepened, and\nseemed, as it was bent upon her, to numb her faculties.\n\nHer whole frame seemed to wilt under the ice of his smile.  She\nshivered with the concentrated hate his eyes expressed.\n\nLower and lower she crouched at his feet.  And as he saw her wilt and\nshiver the smile of Hell deepened in his cruel eyes.\n\nSuddenly he spoke.  The words were uttered in dulcet tones.  But their\nmeaning had, to her, the sentence of death, as softly, calmly, there\nfell from his lips:\n\n\"I have no further need of you!  You are in my way!\"\n\nFor one instant her eyes remained fixed upon his face.  Then slowly her\nlimbs relaxed, her body swayed lightly forward, and sank rather than\nfell upon the thick pile of the carpet.\n\nWith a low, mocking laugh Lucien Apleon turned away from the dead form.\nBut before he passed out of the room he did a curious thing.  A Bible\nrested on one of the shelves of the room, he took the volume from its\nplace, opened it at the 13th of Revelation and taking a pen, he dipped\nit into the red ink, and ran a red line around the 15th verse of the\nchapter.\n\nA moment later he had passed from the room.\n\nThe verse he had red-scored, read: \"He had power to give life unto the\n_image_ of the Beast, that the image of the Beast should both speak,\nand cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast\nshould be killed.\"\n\nNo wonder that Lucien Apleon smiled.  For if presently, he was going to\ncause the _image_ of the Beast to cause death to those who defied him,\nhow much more could he himself strike dead by the power of the Satanic\nenergy given to him.\n\nJudith Apleon's body was conveyed to the crematorium and consumed.  A\ndoctor had certified heart-disease; there was no inquest.  Lucien did\nnot attend the funeral.  The whole affair was carried through by the\nundertaker.  There were no mourners.\n\nThe Anti-christ spirit is marked by \"Without natural affection,\" one\ncould not therefore expect Anti-christ himself to possess _any_\naffection.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n\"A REED LIKE A ROD.\"\n\nEvents moved with startling rapidity.  Events which, in the\nswift-moving times of the last years of the nineteenth century, would\nhave occupied a decade to bring to pass, now occupied no more than the\nsame number of days.  The revived Roman Empire was an established fact.\nMoved by Satan, the ten kings had united to make Lucien Apleon their\nEmperor.  The nations, having cast off all belief in the orthodoxy of\nthe previous centuries, refusing to believe God's truth, utterly\nscouting it, in fact, they had laid themselves open to receive\nAnti-christ's lie, and had swallowed it wholesale.\n\nBabylon had been rebuilt, and had become the _Commercial_ centre of the\nreign of Lucien Apleon, even as Jerusalem was now to become his\nreligious centre.\n\nRalph Bastin was still Editor of the \"Courier,\" though each week, each\nday, in fact, he wondered if it would be his last of office, even as he\noften wondered if he might not have to seal his testimony as a\nGod-inspired editor, with his blood, his life.\n\nAlready, all who, like himself, would live Godly, had to suffer bitter\npersecution.  Many of the Godly had been found mysteriously murdered,\nand always the murders had been passed over by those who were in\nauthority.\n\nRalph was on the point of leaving his office for luncheon, (he always\nlunched in the city,) when a visitor was announced.\n\n\"Rabbi Cohen, to see you, sir,\" announced Charley.\n\n\"Show him in at once,\" replied Ralph, and rising to his feet he went to\nthe door to meet his friend.\n\nThe Rabbi entered with a little eager run, and the two men grasped\nhands heartily, their respective faces glowing with the gladness they\neach felt.\n\nAs it had been with Tom Hammond and that other Cohen, the Jew, who had\nshared in the translation of the Church, so with the Rabbi who was now\nvisiting Ralph, he had been drawn to call upon Ralph, in the first\nplace, because of his editorial espousal of the Jewish people and their\ninterests.\n\nBetween Ralph and the Rabbi, there had grown up a very strong\nfriendship, and though for some weeks, they had not met, each knew that\nthe other's friendship was as ever.\n\nAfter a few ordinary exchanges between the pair, the Rabbi, suddenly\nlooked up eagerly, saying:\n\n\"I have come to say good-bye, to you, my friend, unless, by any\nfortunate chance, I can persuade you to accompany me, or, at least,\nfollow me soon.\"\n\n\"Good-bye, Cohen?\" cried Ralph, \"Why--what--where are you going?\"\n\n\"To Jerusalem, Bastin!\"  There was a curious ring of mixed pride and\ngladness in the manner of his saying \"Jerusalem.\"\n\n\"You know,\" he went on, \"that we Cohens are the descendents of Aaron,\nthat we are of the priestly line.  I am the head of our family, and my\npeople have chosen me as the _first_ High priest for our new Temple\nworship.\"\n\nBrimming with his subject, he spoke rapidly, enthusiastically: \"The\nTemple is to be formally opened on the tenth of September.  The\ntradition among my people, and handed down to us in many of our\nwritings is this, that the Great Temple of Solomon--opened in the\nseventh month, as all our scriptures, yours as well as ours, say--was\ndedicated and opened on a day corresponding with the modern tenth of\nSeptember.  Our new Temple will be opened on the tenth of this month.\"\n\nOn entering the room he had laid a long, cylinder-shaped japanned roll\nupon the table.  This he now took up, took off the lid, and drew out a\nroll of vellum.  Unrolling the vellum, he held the wide sheet out\nbetween his two outstretched hands, saying:\n\n\"I brought this on purpose for you to see, friend Bastin.\"\n\nHe smiled pleasantly as he added: \"I expect you are the only Gentile\nwho has seen this finished drawing.\"\n\nFor a few moments both men were silent.  Ralph was speechless from\namazement, the Rabbi from eager interest in watching his friend's amaze.\n\nThe \"drawing,\" as the Rabbi had called it, was in reality a superb\npainting of the most marvelous structure possible to conceive.  The\nbulk of the vellum surface was occupied with an enormous oblong\nenclosure.  The outer sides of the enclosure showing a most exquisite\nmarble terracing, the capping of the marble wall was of a wondrous\nred-and-orange-veined dark green stone.  The bronze gates were capped\nand adorned with massive inlayings of gold and silver, while the floral\nparts showed the colours of the precious stones used to produce each\nseparate coloured flower.\n\nA huge altar, the ascent to which, on three of the sides was by flights\nof wide steps, occupied the fore-part of the courtyard inside the gates\nof the main entrance--there were five entrances, each with its own\ngates.  Two entrances on each side of the oblong enclosure, and one at\nthe courtyard end.\n\nBeyond the altar was a huge brazen sea, resting upon the hind-quarters\nof twelve bronze oxen.  Beyond the brazen sea was the temple itself,\nentered by a wide porch of wondrous marble, the pillars of which were\ncrowned with golden capitals of marvellous workmanship.  The porch was\nsurmounted by a dome.  Then came the temple proper, its form a square\nabove a square, the upper square surmounted by a huge dome, supported\nupon columns similar to those found in the porch, and in the\nbase-square.\n\nWhat the actual building must be like Ralph could not conceive!  The\npicture of it was a bewildering vision of almost inconceivable\nloveliness.\n\nNow and again he asked a question, the Rabbi, at his side, delighted\nwith his admiration, answering everything fully.\n\n\"What has your wonderful temple cost?\" Ralph presently asked, as the\npicture was being rolled up, and replaced in the japanned cylinder.\n\n\"Twenty million pounds, a full third of which has been spent upon\nprecious stones for studding the walls, and gates, and pillars!\"\n\nRalph gasped in amaze.  \"Twenty--million--pounds!\" He repeated the\nwords much after the manner of a man who, recovering from a swoon,\nsays, \"Where--am--I?\"\n\nThey talked together for a few moments of the _how_ of the financing of\nsuch a costly undertaking.  Then suddenly, Bastin faced his friend, a\nrare wistfulness in his face and in his voice, as he said:\n\n\"I wish, dear Cohen, you, and your dear people could see how futile all\nthis work is!  I do not want to hurt you by speaking of Jesus of\nNazareth.  But suffer me to say this, that probably the only references\nwhich God's word makes to this Temple of yours, are in Daniel xii. 11\nand in the Christian New Testament, Matthew xxiv.  Mark xiii 2, 2\nThessalonians ii 14, and Revelation xi 1, _and there it is mentioned in\nconnection with Judgment_.  In the first verse of _our_ eleventh of\nRevelation, the temple is to be measured, but it is with a reed _like a\nrod_.  Not the ordinary measuring reed, but like a _rod_, the symbol of\nJudgment.\n\n\"And that, dear Cohen, will be the end of your beautiful temple--it\nwill be destroyed in Judgment, and soon--all too soon--it will be\ncursed and defiled by the abomination of desolation of which your\nbeloved prophet Daniel speaks, in the twelfth chapter and the eleventh\nverse.\"\n\nWith a sudden new eagerness, but as sad as he was eager, he said: \"In\nyour extremity, and in your desire to be established in the land of\nyour fathers, you talk of making a seven years covenant with Lucien\nApleon, Emperor of the European confederacy?\"\n\nCohen, evidently impressed by Ralph's manner, nodded an assent, but did\nnot speak.\n\n\"Oh, Cohen, my friend, my friend!\" Ralph went on.  \"Would to God you\nand your people had your eyes open to the true character of that man,\nLucien Apleon!  If you had, you would see from your own prophets that\nhe was prophesied to be your foe.  Remember Daniel nine, twenty-seven\n(according to the modern chaptering and verses) \"He shall confirm the\ncovenant with many for _one week_: (a week of years, of seven years)\nand in the midst of the week (at the end of the first three and a half\nyears) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and on\nthe battlements shall be the idols of the desolator.\"\n\nCohen's face was a picture of wondering amaze.  Twice his lips parted\nas though he would speak, but no sound came from them, and Ralph went\non:\n\n\"I could weep with very anguish of soul, dear friend, at all that you,\nand every truly pious Jew will suffer; when, at the end of the three\nyears and a half ('the midst of the week') the foul fiend whom you are\nall trusting so implicitly, will suddenly abolish your daily sacrifice\nof the morning and evening lamb, and will set up an image of himself,\nwhich you, and all the _Godly_ of your race, will refuse to worship.\nThen will begin your awful tribulation, 'the time of Jacob's deadly\nsorrow.'\n\n\"It is in your own Scriptures, dear friend, if you would but see it.\nAnd in _our_ New Testament, in Matthew twenty-four, which is _all\nJewish_ in its teaching, our Lord and Saviour, foretold all this as to\ncome upon your people.  He even showed them to be in their own land,\nsaying, 'let them which are in Judea flee into the mountains . . . and\npray that your flight be not on the Sabbath day:' (for you Godly Jews\nwould not go beyond Moses' 'Sabbath day's journey,' and Anti-christ's\nmyrmidons would then soon overtake you.)\"\n\nAs if to jerk the talk into a new channel, Cohen said, almost abruptly:\n\n\"Why do you say, my friend, that _our_ temple, the temple which we\nshall dedicate on the tenth of this month, has probably so few mentions\nin the Scriptures, and those in judgment.  When we say that the whole\nof the nine last chapters of our prophet Ezekiel are taken up with it.\nNearly all our plans have followed the directions, the picture of\nEzekiel's Temple?\"\n\n\"That temple, sketched in Ezekiel,\" replied Ralph, \"is the millennial\ntemple.  There was no temple in the nineteen hundred odd years between\nthe destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, and the translation of\n'The church,' a few months ago.  There could be no temple as regards\nGod's people--The Church--because all that nineteen hundred years was a\n_spiritual_ dispensation.  God's Temple then was composed of living\nstones, wherein a _spiritual_ priesthood offered up spiritual\nsacrifices.\n\n\"But to go back to the temple described by Ezekiel in the last nine\nchapters of his prophecy--this is the temple which will be reared in\nthe Millennium, but it will _not be_ in Jerusalem.  Read carefully over\nall that Ezekiel's description, and you will see that when your\nMessiah, our Christ, comes to reign for that wonderful time of a\nthousand years of perfect righteousness, that your land--the land given\nin promise by God to your father Abraham--is to be _re_-divided\n(Ezekiel forty-five one to five).  Ezekiel's Temple, and the division\nof the land, stand and fall together, and it is a subject that cannot\nbe symbolized.\n\n\"Now when the land is divided into straight lines, 'a holy oblation' is\ncommanded of sixty square miles--if the measurement be by _reeds_, or\nfifteen square miles if the measurement be by _cubits_.  This oblation\nland will be divided into three parts.  The northern portion will be\nfor the priests, and the new temple will be in the midst.  The second\ndivision of land, going South will be for the Levites.  And the third,\nthe most Southerly portion, will contain Jerusalem.  So that that\ntemple of the Millenium--Ezekiel's temple--will be fully thirty miles\nfrom Jerusalem.\n\n\"Solomon's temple, and the one your people have just reared are both\nsituated on Mount Moriah, but Ezekiel's temple will not be on Mount\nMoriah, for according to Isaiah two, two, 'It shall come to pass in the\nlast days, that the mountain of Jehovah's House shall be established in\nthe top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all\nnations shall flow unto it.'\n\n\"Read carefully, dear Cohen, your own loved Scriptures (in this\nconnection, especially Isaiah 50) and you will see that Gentiles shall\nhelp, financially, as well as by manual labor to build the place, which\nshall make the place of Jehovah's feet glorious--that must be His\n_Temple_, and _not the city_.  Though Gentiles will also help to build\nthe walls of your new city of Jerusalem in _that_ day.\"\n\nFor fully another half hour the subject was pursued.  Cohen was amazed,\npuzzled, but because his mind was not an open one to receive the\nTruth--nothing blinds and obstructs like a preconceived idea--he failed\nto grasp the Scriptural facts as presented by Ralph.\n\nThe moment came for the farewell word between them.  \"I may never see\nyou again on earth, dear friend,\" Ralph remarked.  \"For, believe me,\nthe day is near at hand when all of us who will cleave to _our_ God,\n_your_ God--the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, will have to seal our\ntestimony with our blood.\n\n\"In three years and a half you, dear Cohen, and all the Godly ones of\nyour race, will be at issue with Lucien Apleon, for according to your\nown prophet, Daniel (apart from our _New_ Testament Scriptures) he, the\nAnti-christ, will autocratically put a stop to your sacrifices in your\nTemple, and will set up his own image to be worshipped, and if you will\nnot worship that image, or if you do not succeed in fleeing to a place\nof safety, your lives will be forfeited.  May God bless you dear, dear\nfriend, and lead you into the Truth of His own plain statements of the\nfacts you have to face.\"\n\nCohen was quiet, subdued, almost sad.  Then, as if to bridge an awkward\nmoment, he said, with a forced eagerness:\n\n\"Why not come to the opening of the Temple yourself, instead of sending\na representative to report to your paper?\"\n\nRalph shook his head; \"I could not get away, dear friend.\"\n\nHe did not voice the actual thing which weighed with him, that any day\nnow he might cease to be Editor of the \"Courier.\"\n\nThe two men shook hands, and parted as men part who never expect to\nmeet again.\n\nBastin left alone dropped into a \"brown study.\"  He was suddenly\nrecalled to the present, by the arrival of the mail.  The most\nimportant packet bore the handwriting of Sir Archibald Carlyon, Ralph's\nproprietor.\n\nHe smiled as he broke the envelope, recalling the thought of his heart\nonly twenty minutes ago, and wondering whether his foreboding was now\nto be verified.\n\nThe letter was as kindly in its tone as Sir Archibald's letters ever\nwere.  But it was none the less emphatic.  After kindliest greetings,\nand a few personal items, it went on:\n\n\"All the strange happenings of the past months have strangely unnerved\nme.  I cannot understand things, 'I dunno where I are,' as that curious\ncatch-saying of the nineteenth century put it.  I live like a man in a\ntroubled dream, a night-mare.  Several members of our church have been\ntaken, and I, who prided myself on my strict churchmanship, have been\nleft behind.  My boon companion, the rector of our parish, a man who\nalways seemed to me to be the beau ideal clergyman, he too is left, and\nis as puzzled and angry as I am.  I think he is more angry and\nmortified than I am, because his pride is hurt at every point, since,\nas the Spiritual head (nominally at least) of this parish, he has not\nonly been passed over by this wonderful translation of spiritual\npersons, but being left behind he has no excuse to offer for it.\n\n\"The curate of our church and his wife, whom we always spoke of as\nbeing 'a bit _peculiar_,' they disappeared when the others did.  By the\nbye, Bastin, good fellow, what constitutes '_peculiarity_,' in this\nsense?  It seems to me now, that to be out and out for God--as that\ngood fellow and his wife were, as well as one or two others in our\nparish--is the real peculiarity of such people.  God help us, what\nfools we have been!\n\n\"Our village shopkeeper, a dissenter, and a much-vaunted _local_\npreacher, is also left behind, but his wife was taken.  A farmer, a\nmember of our own church, who used to invite preachers down from the\nEvangelization Society, London, is gone, but his wife, a strict\nchurchwoman like myself--but a rare shrew--is left.\n\n\"But to come to the chief object of my letter, I am afraid you will be\nsorry--though perhaps not altogether unprepared for what I have to\nsay--'_I have sold the 'Courier._'  It may be the only daily paper, (as\nyou wrote me the other day) that 'witnesses for righteousness,' but my\nmind is too harrassed by all this mysterious business of the\n_Translation_ of men and women, to think of anything else but the\nfuture, and what it will bring.  I have sold the paper to Lucien Apleon\n(through one of his agents, of course, since now that he is made\nEmperor of this strangely constituted confederation of kings and\ncountries) he cannot be expected to personally transact so small a\npiece of business as the purchase of a daily paper.\"\n\nRalph lowered the letter-sheet, a moment, and a weary little smile\ncrept into his face.\n\n\"I might have guessed that Apleon would have done this,\" he mused, \"if\nhe is, as I believe, the Anti-christ!\"\n\nHe lifted the letter again, and read on:\n\n\"He wanted to take possession at once, and give me 5,000 pounds extra\nas a retiring fee for you.  But I was obstinate on this point, and told\nhis agent that he could not have possession until a month from today.\n\n\"Between this and then I shall hope to see you, dear Bastin.  I want to\nsee you very much on my own account.  Your utterances from 'The\nProphet's chair,' have aroused strange new thoughts and desires within\nme, and I want you to help me to a clearer view of the events of the\nnear future.  Then, as to the sundering of our business relations, you\nknow me so well that you know I shall treat you handsomely when you\nretire from the Editorship.\n\n\"Talking of finance, what special use can money be to a man like me\nnow, if all that you have lately written in the 'Courier'--as to _the\nfuture_--be true?\"\n\nThe letter wound up most cordially.  Then there followed a \"P. S.\"\n\n\"My old friend, the Rector of the parish, who has always been keen on\ntheatricals--he would have made a better actor than parson--is having\nthe church seated with plush-covered tip-seats like a theatre, and\nproposes to have a performance every Sunday Evening, and as often in\nthe week as funds, and interest in the affair, will warrant.  Good\nHeavens!  What has the world come to?  Then only to think that\nEngland's King, is under the supreme rule of a Jew, whose antecedents\nno one appears to know--that is to say, previous to his meteoric-like\nappearance when he was twenty-five.  'How are the mighty fallen!\"\n\n\"How, indeed!\" murmured Ralph, with a sigh, as he let the letter fall\non his table.\n\nFor a moment or two he stared straight in front of him, then, half\naloud, he murmured:\n\n\"A month only!  God help me to make good use of the thirty days!  If I\ncan but wake up some of the people of this land to the real position of\naffairs, I shall be only too thankful.\"\n\nFor a few moment's longer he sat on, deep in thought.  Then suddenly he\nstarted sharply, grew alert in every sense, and sounded a summons for\nhis messenger boy.  When the lad appeared, he asked:\n\n\"Do you know if Mr. Bullen is on the premises?\"\n\n\"Yus, sur, he is!\"\n\n\"Ask him to step this way, at once, please!\"\n\nGeorge Bullen, was a keen, up-to-date young journalist, a man of\nthirty-two only, but with a fine record as regarded his profession.  A\nclose personal friendship existed between his chief and himself, for he\nhad been wholly won to God through Ralph's efforts.\n\nIn a few words Ralph explained to the younger man, the changes that\nwere near at hand.  Then continuing:\n\n\"But while you and I, George, represent 'The Courier,' we will make it\nall the power for God and for humanity that lies in our power.  Though\nI am not sure that we can do much with _humanity_, now.  The strong\ndelusion has got such an almost universal grip upon the race, that they\nwill gladly, eagerly swallow all the lie of the Arch-liar, the\nAnti-christ.  In the old days, before the translation of the church,\nthe Bible spoke of 'the whole world lieth in the arms of the Wicked\nOne,' and that is truer than ever now.  Well, George, _we_ must do all\n_we_ can.\n\n\"But now to the chief thing for which I sent for you.  The new temple\nat Jerusalem is to be opened on the tenth.  I want you to go, to\nrepresent the 'Courier.'  What I am especially anxious for you to do,\nis to note everything that will show the true _inwardness_ of things,\nso that the little time left to us, on the dear old paper, shall be a\ntime of holy witness for God.\n\n\"Your knowledge of the East, your acquaintance with Yiddish, and Syrian\nand Hebrew, the very swarthiness of your skin, and blackness of your\nhair, dear boy, may all serve you in good stead.  For, if you feel led\nto it, I should suggest that you adopt that Syrian costume I once saw\nyou in.  This course would have many advantages, for while you could\nthe more readily mix with the people, and obtain _entree_ often where\nyou otherwise could not, your identity as representative of 'The\nCourier,' would not be made known.\n\n\"I am not sure, George, but that if you presented yourself as our\nrepresentative, that all kinds of obstacles might not be put in the way\nof your obtaining information, or, more likely, in transmitting it.\nYou might even be quietly put out of the way.  Spare no expense, dear\nboy, where other men spend five pounds, spend a hundred, if it will\nserve us better.\"\n\nFor a time the two men held deep consultation.  Then when they gripped\nhands in parting, each commended the other to God.\n\nGeorge Bullen started for the East next afternoon.  His stock of\nEastern garments was full and varied, and not one Eastern in a million\nwould have known him from a Syrian native.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n\"THE MARK OF THE BEAST.\"\n\nGeorge Bullen was no stranger to Jerusalem, yet it was a strange\nJerusalem that met his sight as he entered it by the Jaffa gate.  For\ninterest, picturesqueness, even amusement, there is no time so rich as\nat early morning, at the Jaffa gate.\n\nBullen had been perfectly familiar, in the old days (eight years ago)\nwith the scene, but there were differences this morning.  The long\nstrings of donkeys and camels, laden to within the proverbial \"last\nstraw\" and led by foul-smelling, unkempt Bedouins were there, as usual,\nin spite of the fact that railways now ran in every direction.  Eastern\nwomen, robed in their loose blue cotton wrapper garments--sleeping, as\nwell as day attire--were there in galore, only now all of them walked\nunveiled, whereas, in the old days, most of them were veiled.\n\nPilgrims from every land were pouring into the city.  The cafes were\ncrowded.  The aroma of strong black coffee was often _fortunately_,\nstronger than the less pleasant odours of the insanitary streets.\n\nEarly as it was, the money changers were doing a stirring trade.\nWater-carriers moved about with their monotonous cry of \"_moyeh_,\"\nsupplemented, in some cases, by the same word in English--\"_Water_.\"\n\nMarket garden produce, the finest in the world, and now proving how\nliterally Palestine, under the fertilizing power of the \"_latter_\nrain,\" had become \"a fruitful garden,\" was piled everywhere about at\nthe sides of the streets.  Cauliflowers thirty-six inches around, with\nevery other vegetable equally fine, melons, lemons, oranges, grapes,\ntomatoes, asparagus, onions, leeks, lettuce, water-cress, even garlic,\nall were here, with turbaned dealers sitting cross-legged among the\nproduce.\n\nEarly as it was, crowds of American, English, and Continental tourists\nwere abroad, their gleaming white drill attire and tobies and helmets,\nconspicuous among the grander colour of the natives.\n\nBut George Bullen had seen all this many times before, his eyes now\ntook but little note of the streets and their contents, except that he\nnoted the fact under the new order of things, since the Jews had come\ninto possession of the city, that there was scarce a Moslem of any kind\nto be seen, and that most of the tumble-down, smaller houses, of a few\nyears back, had been pulled down, and that the streets in consequence\nhad been considerably widened.  Hundreds of new houses of bungalow\ntype, had taken the places of those pulled down.  Most of these were\nbuilt on the \"Frazzi\" system, or else after the fashion known as\nreinforced concrete.\n\nAll these changes were note-worthy, and full of meaning, but George\nBullen's eyes and attention were almost wholly absorbed by the Temple\nthat crowned Mount Moriah.  He had not, of course, seen that wonderful\npainting on Vellum which Rabbi Cohen had shown Ralph Bastin.  It is\ntrue he had seen photographs and sketches reproduced in the English\nillustrated papers.  But none of these had prepared him for the actual.\n\nRobed in his Syrian garb, and looking for all the world like the \"real\narticle,\" he passed through the cosmopolitan crowd always making his\nway upwards to where the marble and gold of the wonderful Temple reared\nitself.\n\nArrived outside the great main gates, he stood awed at the wonder and\nmagnificence of all that he saw.  The whole structure was complete.\nNot a pole or plank of scaffolding was left standing, no litter or\nrubbish heaps were to be seen; every approach, every yard of the\nenclosure was beautifully swept.  A few officials, in a remarkable\nuniform moved here and there about the great enclosure.\n\nFor two hours George Bullen moved slowly round the Temple, making long\npauses at intervals, and taking in every item of the wondrous\narchitecture and still more wondrous ornamentation.  When he finally\nleft the Mount, and took his way down the wide, steep decline--the\nwhole of this wide road was composed of marble blocks, reminding him of\nthe Roman Appian way--his mind was in a whirl, his head ached with the\nglare of the sun on the gold, and with the deep concentration of his\nsight upon so much colour and glitter.  Again and again he paused, and\nlooked upwards and backwards, he had a difficulty in tearing himself\naway.  But he had much to do, and could not afford to linger.\n\n      *      *      *      *      *      *\n\nIt was the day before the official opening of the Temple.  Jerusalem\nwas thronged--inside and outside, for Jerusalem, (according to\nZechariah ii. 4) was \"inhabited as a town _without walls_.\"  The\nenvirons, and the suburbs had spread in every direction.  For the first\ntime in the history of the world, the hills, Gareb and Goath, _outside_\nJerusalem, had, a few years before this, been covered with villas,\nbungalows, hotels, etc., absolutely fulfilling Jeremiah xxxi. 38-40.\n\nLucien Apleon's Palace, which had been built concurrently with the\nTemple, and which, in its way, was almost as gorgeous a building, was\nfilled with the ten Kings of the Confederacy, and their suites.\n\nSoldiers of every one of the ten nationalities--though all wearing one\nuniform, save that the \"facings\" were different to denote the land to\nwhich they belonged--were everywhere to be seen.\n\nItinerant venders moved about among the throngs bawling their chief\nware--\"Programs for the Temple, to-morrow.\"  George Bullen bought one\nof the Programs.\n\nIt was an amazing production, and as blasphemous as it was amazing.  It\nwas most sumptuously got up, printed in a style unknown to the days of\neven the end of the first decade of the 20th century.\n\nBut before he began to read the order of the events, or even to note\nthe marks of sumptuousness of the appearance of the program, his\nattention was arrested by a bold, curious hieroglyphic which headed the\nprogram.  This figuring was in richest purple and gold, and bore this\nform:\n\n[Illustration: Mark of the Beast]\n\nFor a long time he puzzled over the sign.  Then, suddenly a memory\nreturned to him.  One night when Ralph Bastin had been speaking to him\nabout the Anti-Christ he had said:\n\n\"Here is a curious thing, George!  I have just read in the Revelation,\nthirteen, eighteen, that The Number of the Beast--the Anti-christ--is\nTHE Number of MAN; and his number is 666.\"  Now this number, _in the\nGreek_, is made up of two characters which stand for the name of\nChrist, with a third character, the figure of a crooked serpent put\nbetween them--the name of God's Christ, the Messiah, turned into a\ndevil sacrament (i. e. oath of fidelity.)\n\n\"Ralph would have shown me the sign, I know,\" Bullen mused, \"but that\nat the very moment we were talking together, there came that scare of\nfire in the stereo room, and we both rushed away.  But now I know that\nthis sign on the program is the 'Mark of the Beast,' and that it\n_signifies the oath of Fidelity to Anti-christ_.\"\n\nHe caught his breath sharply, as he murmured:\n\n\"So it has begun!  He has begun to show his hand!\"\n\nThen he let his eyes take in the contents of the program.\n\nBeneath the Hieroglyphic was the greeting:\n\n  \"TO ALL THE WORLD!\n  APLEON, EMPEROR,\n  by the election of\n  MAN.\n\n  Commands the following events in connection\n  with the Dedication and\n  opening of the Temple at Jerusalem.\n\n  4-30 p. m. 9th Sept., year 1 of Apleon.\n  (Subject to minor alterations.)\n\n  Appointment of the High Priest elect,\n  by the Emperor.\n  Address by The High Priest.\n  Confirmation of the 7 years Covenant\n  between the Hebrew Nation and the Emperor.\n  Affirmatory Signatures and Seals affixed.\n  Sign of the Sacrament\n  to be distributed and donned by all present.\n\n6-30 p. m.  Bureaus will be opened all over the city, and in the\nimmediate neighbourhood of the Temple for the free distribution of the\nsacramental signs, with directions for wearing the same.  The donning\nof the sign will be, of course, entirely voluntary.\n\n\n\"For how long,\" murmured Bullen to himself, \"will this be voluntary?\"\n\nHe continued his reading:\n\n\"At 7-30 a. m. 10th Sept.  The Dedication of the Temple.  The\nprocession of Kings, headed by Apleon, Emperor of the World, will start\nfrom the Apleon Palace at 7-0 a. m.  Imperial troops will line the way.\n\n\"Fanfare of trumpets will greet the procession on its arrival at the\nTemple Gates.\n\n\"Opening ode will be sung by 1,000, singers massed in the courtyard.\n\n\"Ceremony inside will commence by the investiture of the High Priest\nwith his glorious robes of office, the investiture will be performed by\nthe Emperor.\n\n\"The 7 years Covenant to be read aloud by the High Priest.\n\n\"Ode of Adoration of the Emperor to be sung by the Priests, choristers,\nand others.\n\n\"The ceremony is to be held at the above early hour, that there may be\nno undue exposure to the heat of the later fore-noon.\"\n\nIn pursuance with the liberty of these more enlightened days, all\npersons may worship with covered or uncovered heads, as may seem fit to\neach person.  This applies to Jews and Jewesses also, and, (N. B.)\nthere will be no division of sex for the Jew and Jewess, they will\nworship together.  The days of the _grille_ are past.\n\n\"LONG LIVE THE EMPEROR!\"\n\n\n\"Of all the extraordinary productions--!\" murmured George Bullen.  He\ndid not finish his sentence, he would have been puzzled to have found\nterms to have expressed all that he felt.\n\n\"I wonder if these programs can be procured in London?\" he went on.\n\nA seller passed him at that moment, and he bought a second program, to\nsend to Ralph Bastin.\n\nThey had made an arrangement, before parting, that everything--letters,\nwireless, and all other messages--should be sent in code, and to an\naddress, and under a name that should not be recognized as having any\nconnection with the 'Courier'--\"if,\" Ralph had added quietly, \"there\nare no demons present here who can divulge our talk.\"\n\nThis was always one of the difficulties that the godly, at that time,\nhad to contend with, the ignorance of how far _invisible_ demons could\nspy upon, and report their sayings and doings.\n\nHour by hour, the streets grew denser, for each hour brought new\narrivals, and always some of the _elite_ of the earth.  To George\nBullen, with the journalist instinct, there was \"copy\" everywhere, and\nhe was not slow to take full notes.\n\nThings were quieter from one to four, for the heat, in the open, was\nalmost unbearable.  At four o'clock, Bullen was close by the chief gate\nof the Temple.  He would watch the arrival of the chief actors in the\nfirst part of the great ceremonies.\n\nThrough the mighty hosts of acclaiming peoples which lined that wide\nmarble upward road, King after King rode, all on white horses.\nMerchant princes from Babylon; Royal princes from many lands.\n\nThe last of the Kings to arrive was the King of Syria.  At the gate,\nclose to where George Bullen was standing, the horse of the Syrian\nmonarch grew restive.\n\nQuick to seize an opportunity of getting into the Temple to see the\nceremony, George caught the rein of the horse, and with a soothing word\nand touch, led the beast through the gate, flinging back a word in\nSyrian to the King in the saddle.\n\nHearing his own tongue, and noting the garb of his horse's leader, the\nKing flung a word of thanks to George, who led the horse right up to\nthe door of the sanctuary.\n\nEach monarch kept his saddle.  Five were drawn up on one side, and five\non the other.  They waited for Apleon.  A moment or two only, then amid\na thunder of acclaim of \"Long live the World's Emperor!\" Lucien Apleon,\nthe Anti-christ, the Man of Sin, riding a jet black horse, cantered\nthrough the gate.\n\nHe was a marvellous figure of a man.  In stature he was nearer seven\nfeet than six.  His form as erect as a Venetian mast.  His costume was\nstrange, but very striking, and gave him a regality of appearance.\n\nIt was partly Oriental, partly occidental, and consisted of a\ncurious-toned darkish green military tunic, heavily-frogged with gold,\nand with a wide, gold-braid collar.  The buttons of the tunic were\nseparate emeralds set in circles of diamonds, and enclosed in a wide\ncirclet of gold.  He wore white knee-breeches, and high Hessian boots,\nadorned at the heels with gold spurs.  Over his shoulders, clasped at\nthe neck with a large gold-and-precious-stone buckle of the same\nmysterious form as the hieroglyphic crest at the head of the Programs,\nhe wore a wonderful burnouse of white and gold fleece, the gold\npredominating over the white, and flashing fiercely, gorgeously in the\nsun.  His leonine head was surmounted with a dazzling covering that was\nneither a crown, a mitre, nor a turban, but partook of the nature of\nall three.  It was profusely bedecked with the most costly of precious\nstones.  The largest diamond ever seen, shaped as an eight-pointed\nstar, and measuring nearly six inches from point to point, was set in\nthe front-centre of the mitre-turban-crown.  With the sun shining upon\nit, it was impossible to gaze upon the diamond.\n\nRiding up to the door of the porch of the Temple, his horse's\nfore-hoofs resting on the upper of the four steps, he paused only to\nreturn the salutes of the ten kings, then flung himself from the\nsaddle, and waited a moment until his horse was led away.  Then turning\noutwards towards the way by which he had come, he surveyed the scene\nbelow him.\n\nNever in the history of the world had anything more Wonderful been\nseen.  Several million people were gathered--streets were blocked;\nwalls of the city, roofs of the houses and palaces and public buildings\nwere packed.  Every window that faced the mount was crowded.  Flags\nflew everywhere within the city, and beyond the walls, where hundreds\nof thousands of acclaiming people were gathered, every eye was directed\ntowards that Temple entrance where Anti-christ, the World's Emperor\nstood.\n\nAs he turned to face the millions of acclaiming people, a gun was fired\nfrom the grounds of his palace, and at the same instant, a ball of\nwhite, which had hung at the head of the flag-staff on the roof of his\npalace, suddenly broke, and there swept out upon the light breeze, an\nenormous white silk flag, the centre of which bore the mystic\ninscription that had already appeared on the official programs, and\nwhich he wore in gold jewels for a buckle of his bernouse.\n\nThe eyes of Apleon flashed with a curious pride as he saw the great\nwhite flag break in the air, while a smile, diabolical as Hell itself,\ncurled his lips.  It seemed almost as though it was to see that\ndamnable challenge flung forth to the wind, that he had turned, more\nthan to acknowledge the acclaim of the gathered millions of the\ndeceived, lie-deluded people.\n\nA moment later, he turned into the Temple.  The ten kings, Babylonian\nmerchant-princes, and others of note following.\n\nGeorge Bullen, walking directly behind the King of Syria, passed in\nwith the others.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nTHE INVESTITURE.\n\nA great hush fell upon those who gathered within that Temple.  It was\nnot an awe from the sense of the divine--for God was not there in His\nglory and power, since Anti-christ's spirit filled the place.  It was\nnot the awe of silence and subjection to the world's greatest\nruler--though, presently, something of that would come upon those\ngathered when they had eyes, ears, and mind for Apleon the Emperor.\nNeither was the silence one of curiosity in the character of the\nservice in which they had been called to take part.  The hush upon the\nassembly was one of wonder and amaze at the splendour of the Temple's\ninterior in which they found themselves.\n\nGold--there was no silver--, precious stones, sandalwood, marbles such\nas had never been seen by any eye before, all fashioned into a wondrous\nstyle of architecture peculiarly unique, yet withal holding a perfect\nharmony--such is (not a description, for a description, in detail would\nbaffle the clearest mind and cleverest pen)--a bold mention of a few of\nthe chief materials.\n\nThe artist--architect--he must have been as much an artist as an\narchitect to have designed the style--had taken _some_ ideas from the\ndescription, in Ezekiel, of the Millennial Temple.  There was the palm,\nthe cherub with two faces, (the young lion and the man) \"so that the\nface of a young lion was on the one side toward the palm, and the face\nof a man on the other side toward the palm.\"  The vine and the\npomegranite were there.  In spite of the most profuse detail all was\nrendered with a perfection of minuteness, while throughout the whole of\nthe interior the harmony of colour was beyond praise--and beyond\ndescription.\n\nFor the technical skill exhibited in each separate item of colour,\ncarving, and \"cunning\" workmanship, had, with truest artistic sense,\nbeen subordinated to that wondrous balance of the whole appearance that\nwent to make up the amazing harmony that was as a veritable atmosphere\nin the place.  To combine in a chromatic scheme so much brilliance and\ncolour without even a suspicion of gaudiness, or the _bizarre_, was a\ntriumph of art.\n\nThe light in the place was a true adjunct to the effects produced by\nthe wondrous composition of the blended glory and colour.  There was no\nwindow anywhere, but \"Radiance,\" the newest light of the day, tempered\nby rose-pink and palest electric blue prisms, filled the place with a\nwondrous radiance, while at the same time the eye could not detect the\nvarious spots where the separate lights were located.\n\nThe company gathered was in harmony with the place, since the many\notherwise gaudy tints of costume and uniform were softened, blended,\nand harmonized by the power of colour-tone of the prisms through which\nthe otherwise fierce, flashing \"Radiance\" was shed.\n\nThe _outer temple_ interior--the place where the brilliant throng was\ngathered--would hold a thousand persons comfortably.  (There was no\nseat in Solomon's temple, as there was no seat in the Tabernacle, which\nwas a symbol of the ever unfinished work of the earthly priesthood.)\nAnd there was no seat here, save a throne-chair of gold, ivory,\nmother-of-pearl, and precious stones, that occupied the centre of a\nmagnificent dais just in front of the entrance into the very small\n\"Holy of Holies.\"  A wonderful curtain of purple velvet--not the fine\ntwined linen as of old--screened off this narrow strip of the interior,\nfrom the larger outer section.  The curtain was worked with marvellous\nneedlework in gold and pearls of almost priceless value, the pattern\nbeing a wonderful blending of cherubim, palm, and pomegranate.\n\nOn entering the building The Emperor Apleon, seated himself on the\nThrone, when each person present made a deep bow of obeisance.  One man\nonly remained upright--George Bullen.  Taking advantage of his position\nbehind a marble pillar, he held himself erect.  Had he been detected,\nhe would have rapturously sacrificed his life rather than have bent to\nthe Anti-christ.\n\nThe platform of the dais, on which the throne-chair stood, was reached\nby three wide marble steps that sprang from the floor-level.  At the\nfoot of these steps, Cohen the High-priest elect, stood clothed in a\nsingle garment of pure white linen, that reached from his shoulders to\nhis feet.  Attendant priests stood by, each holding one garment or\nornament, as the case might be, ready for the investiture.\n\nApleon rose from his throne, a magnificent, but a sardonic figure for\nall that.  As he rose, soft, weird music came from an angle where a\nscreen of palm-ferns was placed.  Though mechanical, the music was of\nan exquisite character.\n\nThen, suddenly, swelling above the low weird music, came the voices of\na score or more white-robed priests chanting:\n\n\"Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God!\"\n\nGeorge Bullen's eyes were fixed upon the face of Apleon, and he noted\nthe mocking, contemptuous smile that curled his lips at the language of\nthe chant.\n\nAs the chant finished, Cohen turned and faced Apleon, and slowly\nclimbed the steps.  The music had ceased now, and, amid an absolute\nsilence, Apleon took \"the embroidered coat\" from the offered hands of\none of the subordinate priests.  The garment was of white linen\nwonderfully, beautifully embroidered.  It reached from the shoulders to\nthe feet and fitted the body closely, a draw-string of white linen tape\nfastening the sleeves at the wrists, and drawing the breast of the\nvestment close about.\n\nA linen girdle \"four fingers wide,\" and long enough when tied to reach\nthe feet, was next put about Cohen by Apleon.  Then a third priest\nhanded the Emperor, \"The Robe of the Ephod.\"  This was a long, loose\ngarment of Royal blue satin, with a wide neck-opening, the opening\nbound with a wide gold band.  The Robe was slipped over the head, and\nit dropped to the feet of the High-priest.  Upon the lower hem of the\nRobe was a rich, deep fringe of alternate blue, purple, and scarlet\ntassels made in the form of pomegranates.  Between each pomegranate was\na golden bell.\n\nStill amid an absolute silence, the investiture proceeded.  Apleon took\nthe costly and beautiful Ephod of a fourth priest.  This vestment was\nin two pieces, one for the front, the other for the back.  They were\njoined together, at the shoulders, by bands of wide gold braid, and\nbuckled with two of the Anti-christ covenant badges.  Apleon had\nprovided himself with these, and no one probably, save George Bullen,\nnoticed of what the bucklings consisted.  But nothing escaped Bullen,\nfor while the attention of everyone else in the place was given only in\na _general_ way to the robing of the High Priest, _his_ whole and\nabsolute attention was concentrated on Apleon, all that he did, every\nvarying expression of his handsome but sardonic face, and every\nmovement of his fingers.\n\nAnother priest handed \"The curious girdle of the Ephod.\"  But, unlike\nthe ordained adjunct, as given in Exodus, in this case it was a\nseparate piece, and instead of being of the same stuff, was a cunningly\nworked band of gold studded with many gems.  The girdle handed to\nApleon, fastened with a clasp.  The clasp was worth a Jew's ransom, and\nlike the breast-plate--presently to be slung about the neck of\nCohen--was a gift to the Temple by Apleon.\n\nBut the gift was accursed, for among the curiously, twisted gold of the\nclasp, the \"Mark of the Beast\" could be traced, if carefully\nscrutinized.\n\nThe Ephod Girdle being clasped, a priest handed the breastplate to the\nEmperor.  It should, according to the Mosaic command, have been made of\nthe same material as the Ephod--\"of gold, of blue, of purple, of\nscarlet, and of fine twisted linen.\"\n\nBut in this case it was made of gold, and slung by a gold chain about\nthe High-priest's neck.\n\nThe gold filigree setting for the stones, held within its cunning\nworkmanship that same damnable sign--\"The Mark of the Beast,\" though\nonly a very keen, clever eye would have detected the foul hieroglyphic\namong the twistings of gold patterning.  The whole plate was about ten\ninches square, the centre divided by gold ribs, across and across, into\ntwelve sections, each section holding a separate precious stone of\nfabulous wealth.  Just for a moment or two the wondrous mechanical\nmusic stole out again upon the silence.  Lovers of music recognized\npart of Schubert's \"Unfinished Symphony.\"  What wondrous melody there\nwas in the fragment!  The priests' voices chanted again, and all the\ntime the face of Apleon wore its mocking smile.  Reading from the\ntop--right to left, as the breastplate hung on the breast--the stones\nand their significance ran as follows:\n\n  CARBUNCLE,       TOPAZ,        SARDIUS,\n  Zebulun          Issachar.     Judah.\n\n  DIAMOND,         SAPPHIRE,     EMERALD,\n  Gad.             Simeon.       Reuben.\n\n  AMETHYST,        AGATE,        LIGURE,\n  Benjamin.        Manasseh,     Ephraim.\n\n  JASPER,          ONYX,         BERYL,\n  Naphtali.        Asher.        Dan.\n\n\nThe last piece of this wonderful Robing, was the Mitre.  It was really\na turban of pure white linen, an oblong shield-shaped plate of pure\ngold, being attached to the fullness of the deep, front roll of the\nturban.  Engraved in Hebrew characters upon the plate, were the words:\n\"HOLINESS TO THE LORD.\"  Here again, keen and practised eyes would have\ndetected the foul sign of the \"man of sin,\" among the wondrous, and\ndelicate chasing of the gold around the Hebrew lettering.\n\nIt has taken twenty times longer to record this robing than the time\nactually employed.  As a matter of fact it occupied but a few minutes.\nThen, at last, the work was complete, and the silence was broken.\n\nIt was the Emperor who spoke: \"Behold the Priest of the Most High God!\"\nhe cried.\n\nEvery soul present, save George Bullen, was more or less under the\nspell of the Arch-Deceiver, or they would have caught the sneer in the\nrich full voice, even as George Bullen caught it.\n\nTrue to his journalistic instinct, as well as to his new desire as a\nChristian, to know well the Word of God, Bullen had read over, the\nnight before, the passages in Exodus and Leviticus, relating to the\nrobing of the High-priest, and had been struck with this fact, that the\nHigh-priest himself did _nothing_, took no active part in his robing.\nMoses, as _God's representative_, did _everything_.\n\nNow as he recalled this, and while he considered why Apleon should have\n\"acted valet\" to a Jew priest, there recurred, with startling power to\nBullen, the words of prophecy by Daniel, concerning the \"Man of Sin:\"\n\"he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every God--\"\n\n\"He has purposely chosen to do this robing business, quietly setting\nhimself up as God,\" was the thought of Bullen.  There was no time for\nfurther musing.  The newly-invested High-priest was speaking:\n\n\"Bring hither the '_Torah_'--Roll of the Law.\"\n\nA serious-faced young Jew, a praying shawl over his head, bore towards\nthe High-Priest--the parchment scroll loosely-cased in a silken\nslip-off.  As he bore the sacred roll he reverently kissed the tassels\nof the drawstring of the silken slip.\n\nThe attendant drew off the cover, and dropping it across his left\nshoulder, unrolled the scroll, and held it extended for the High-priest\nto read.\n\nCohen made a sign to a priest who held a Shophar (hallowed ram's horn)\nin his hand.  Instantly the priest covered his head with his \"_talate_\"\n(praying shawl) and lifting the horn to his lips he blew \"the great\nTeru-gnah.\"\n\nEvery Jew presently covered his head with his prayer shawl, and the\nHigh-Priest, cried:\n\n\"Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God!\"\n\nThen turning to the scroll, he read in a curious, monotonous intone,\npart of Solomon's prayer at the opening of the Temple:\n\n\"Now then, O Lord God of Israel, let Thy word be verified (on the\nmorrow of this day).  Thy word which Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant\nDavid.  Amen.\"\n\nInclining his head towards the scroll-bearer, as a sign that he had\nfinished his brief reading, he cleared his voice and addressing his own\npeople, said:\n\n\"Brethren, fathers, sons of Father Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, because that\nthe good hand of our God hath been upon us, we are once more restored\nto our own land.  No longer trodden down by stranger's feet, Jerusalem\nis again for the Jew, and the Jew for Jerusalem.  We meet here this\nafternoon in our own Temple, reared by Jewish gold and patriotism.  Our\nFather's Temple, Solomon's could have been but a poor synagogue\ncompared to this in which we are now found.  To-morrow, all the world\nwill be gathered to this place, (all that part of the world worth\ncalling _The_ World) to the formal, official opening of this Temple.\nTo-morrow, for the first time since this city, and since \"Herod's\"\nTemple were destroyed, we shall slay the morning and evening lamb, the\ndaily sacrifice ordained by our God.\n\n\"Today we have an accredited place among the nations.  There may be\nspecial _Jewish_ reasons for the coming to pass of this universal\nrecognition of our race, but chief among the factors that have gone to\nbring all this about, is the friendship of Lucien Apleon, Emperor,\nDictator of the world.\"\n\nCohen turned and bowed to the throne where Apleon sat, his face filled\nwith a smile in which pride in his position and quizzical mirth at\nCohen's allusion to the soundness of the Jewish position, were mingled.\n\nThere was a slight movement among the kings, and other grandees, and\namid murmurs of assent at Cohen's allusion to the Emperor, the member\nof the Royal confederation bowed to the throne.\n\nCohen proceeded: \"In spite of our position, today, fathers and\nbrethren, we could not maintain it a week, and certainly we could not\nstrengthen and consolidate it, but for our Emperor.  We desire to\nmaintain, to strengthen our position, hence it has seemed good to the\ngreat International Jewish committee to seek to have a covenant with\nLucien Apleon, Emperor--Dictator of the World.  The covenant is for\nseven years.  We on our part are to serve him in every way, he on his\npart to guarantee our protection--for we have neither Army or Navy--in\nreturn for our allegiance to him.\n\n\"This covenant, duly drawn up, is here for final signature this\nafternoon.  As your elected High-Priest, and representative of our\nrace, I shall sign it on behalf of our people, our Emperor will also\naffix his signature.  Then all of us, as a sign of our covenant and our\nallegiance, will wear a badge which has been prepared.  The badge can\nbe worn--like the written Law of our God, as commanded by our father\nMoses, 'as a sign upon our hand, or as a frontlet between our eyes--.'\n\n\"Many millions of the badges have been prepared, made in white metal\nfor _free_ distribution to the poorest of the world, or jewelled, gold\nor silver, for those who would fain purchase something more in\naccordance with their rank, station, or wealth.  The time is at hand\nwhen no one will be able to buy or sell, save he who wears this sign.\"\n\nHe paused, and turning to where a little knot of white-robed priests\nstood, they parted, and showed an exquisite little table of gold and\npearl, and on the table a jewelled casket of marvellous workmanship.\n\nTwo of the priests bore the table to the centre of the floor where\nCohen stood.  He opened the casket, drew forth a small silk-tasselled\nparchment roll, and laid it open upon the table.  The two priests held\ndown the curling corners.\n\nA fountain pen--the cylinder of jewelled gold--lay in a hollow of the\ncasket.  Cohen took the pen, and wrote at the foot of the text of the\ncovenant:\n\n\"In the Name of our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and on\nbehalf of His chosen people, I Solomon Isaac Cohen (Aaron,) First\nHigh-Priest of the new era, in the City of Jerusalem, on the ninth day\nof September, 19--, (_world's_ calculation) subscribe myself.\"\n\nAs he lifted his form erect again, he made a sign to the two priests.\nThey lifted the table and bore it up to the platform of the dais.\n\nApleon, without rising from the throne, took the pen and made his\nsignature.  Two seals were affixed, Cohen and Apleon, touched them,\nthen the table was once more lifted to the floor level, and the ten\nkings signed the covenant, _as witnesses_.\n\nThen every one present, save George Bullen, donned one of the badges.\nIn the crowding, his non-compliance was unnoticed.  All the kings and\nmost of the princes and others, from Babylon, received massive and\ncostly signet rings from the hands of Apleon, himself.  Each signet was\nengraved with \"The _covenant Sign_,\" as it was called.\n\n_God calls it \"The Mark of the Beast.\"_\n\nThe recipients of the rings, all wore them on the third finger of the\nright hand, as did others of the minor personages.  Many of the Jews,\nin their enthusiasm, wore one of the \"Signs\" in the centre of the\nforehead, held in position by a fine gold chain that passed round the\nhead, as well as one on the right hand.\n\nWhen the \"Covenant\" badges had been donned, Apleon was hailed as the\nworld's deliverer, the whole Temple ringing with the plaudits of the\nkings and others.\n\nA moment, and he passed outside, and stood on the top step of the\nTemple flight.  Again the \"Hurrahs\" were raised, and caught by the\nmultitudes that thronged that wide marble approach to the gates of the\nTemple, and caught again and again by ever more distant peoples, until\nin a moment or two, from three to four million people, inside and\noutside the city, were belching forth their acclaimings of a demon,\ncounting him almost God.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nTHE DEDICATION.\n\nSave for the Bible record of the opening of Solomon's Temple, Cohen and\nhis colleague-priests, had no precedent upon which to base their order\nof procedure as regarded the official opening of the Temple, and the\nconsequent re-commencement and re-establishment of the daily sacrifices.\n\nThen, too, the ideas of the Jew of the period, as regarded worship,\nwere more or less of a hybrid character, while the modern repugnance to\nblood-shedding, and all the consequent unpleasantness of the\nsacrificial ceremonies, caused the Jewish leaders to construct a very\nmuch more simple ritual than anything approaching the original Mosaic\nstandard.\n\nOne thing had been decided by them in council, that was, to make this\ngreat epoch in their renationalization to synchronize with their New\nYear, which would properly fall the next month, on October 2nd, to be\ncorrect.  The usual New Year's ceremony of Shophar-blowing would be\nobserved.\n\nCohen, and his fellow priests, were early at the Temple, and long\nbefore the hour advertised on the programmes--7-30, every arrangement\n(from their stand-point) was complete.\n\nAt seven o'clock, sharp, the gun was fired at the \"Palace Apleon,\" and\nthe great silken flag, with its \"Covenant\" sign, flew out upon the\nbreeze.  The whole city and its suburbs were astir.\n\nSuddenly a burst of brazen music rent the more or less silent air of\nthe city, and Cohen and his fellow priests knew that the procession had\nstarted from the Palace.  Soon it was in sight.  Oh the wonder, the\ngorgeousness, the BLASPHEMY of it!  Riding on a white horse, there came\nfirst the standard bearer.  The heel of the standard pole was socketted\nin a deep barrel of leather that ran from the saddle to the stirrup.\nThe rider was a man of enormous strength, and he had need to be, to\nbear the strain of the breeze that tugged at the many square yards of\nwhite silk, of which the standard was composed.  Like the flag on the\nplace, like the brand on the brows and right hands of many of the\nmultitude, the \"_Covenant_\" sign appeared in the centre of the standard\nborne aloft by that mounted bearer.\n\nBehind the standard came the band, fifty mounted players.  Behind the\nband there was a gap of sixty or seventy feet.  Then, alone, proud,\nregal, handsome, mighty of stature, noble in pose, mounted on his\njet-black mare, and attired as he had been overnight, rode Apleon, the\nEmperor--Dictator of the World.  After him, but with fifty feet of\nspace between, rode the ten kings, then their respective suites.  Then\ncame the Babylonian merchant princes, and others.\n\nIt was a triumphal procession for Apleon.  For it was _his_ name that\nfilled throats of the acclaiming multitudes as they roared out their\n\"Huzzahs!\"\n\nThe scene in the Courtyard of the Temple was one of wondrous pomp, and\nof even deeper significance.  As Apleon rode in, a fan-fare of trumpets\ngave him greeting.  Then when the last intricate brazen note had\nsounded, the mighty multitude drowned even the memory of the trumpets,\nby the deafening roar of their Huzzahs!\n\nTen bugles sounded \"Silence.\"  It took a full minute for the command to\npass from lip to lip to the uttermost reaches of the people.  Then, in\nthe comparative stillness, Apleon dismounted from his horse, took the\ndiamond-studded key from the hand of the High-Priest, opened the door,\nflung it wide, and proclaimed The Temple opened, \"in the name of\nApleon, Emperor--Dictator of the World.\"\n\nThat opening word truly translated, meant, \"in the name of the Devil,\nby the person of his Anti-christ.\"\n\nThe High-Priest, standing on the top-step of the wide flight that led\nto the porch, faced the people and priests, and began to recite\nselected parts of Solomon's prayer at the Dedication of _his_ Temple.\nThese finished, he cried, with a loud voice:\n\n\"It having pleased our God to restore us, His chosen earthly people,\nthe Jews, to our own land, and to our own beautiful Zion,\" joy of the\nwhole earth, \"we make the occasion to be as the beginning of a new era,\na new year.  And as the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, in Egypt,\nsaying: 'This month shall be the beginning of months: it shall be the\n_first month of the year to you_,' so we proclaim to _our_ people\ntoday, this month shall be the beginning of our New Year, and of a New\nDispensation to us.\"\n\nDropping his proclamation loudness of voice, he slipped into his\nsynagogue recitative tone, as he went on:\n\n\"On the first of the month, shall be a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing\nof trumpets and holy convocation.  Ye shall offer an offering unto the\nLord.\"\n\nHe signed to the Tokeang--the Shophar blower--and instantly the weird,\ncurious, quavering, vibrating sounds broke on the still air.\n\nAs the last note of the shophar died away, Cohen cried:\n\n\"Let all the house of Israel, sacrifice unto the Lord!\"\n\nLifting his hand as he spoke, a turbaned priest led a lamb to the foot\nof the altar.  A gleaming knife, snatched from his girdle flashed for a\nmoment in the air; there was a swift movement of the sacrificial\npriest's arm, a gurgle from the silent lamb, and the little fleecy\nthing sank dying upon the grating before the altar.\n\nOnly those immediately near could see all that followed, until the\nmoment when the carcass of the lamb was reared to the grating on the\nsummit of the altar.\n\nA strange stillness rested upon the people gathered, as another\nturbaned priest brought a torch to fire the wood beneath the altar.\n\nBefore he could reach the altar, the voice of Apleon stayed his feet.\n\n\"Let no fire be brought!\" he cried, in commanding tones.  \"I will\nconsume the offering!\"\n\nHe stretched his right hand forth, the fingers closed.  Then opening\nhis fingers, he drew back his arm suddenly, sharply, then jerked it\nforward again--it was the old mesmeric pass of the magicians.\n\nInstantly, the interior of the altar blazed with long, fierce forks of\nmany coloured flames, and as they finally resolved themselves into a\nblood-red fiery cloud that hung over the sacrifice, the \"_covenant_\"\nsign floated in white amid the blood-red cloud.  Another movement and\nthe red cloud melted away, but like a quivering golden light the \"Sign\"\nremained an instant hovering over the altar.  When that, too, melted,\nit was seen that not a vestige of the lamb was left.\n\nAwed and silent, the onlookers wondered!  For a moment George Bullen\nwas puzzled.  Then he recalled the words of prophecy, as regarded The\nAnti-christ.\n\n\"_His coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs\nand lying wonders . . .  And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh\nfire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and\ndeceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles\nwhich he had power to do._\"\n\nThe greatest tribute that could have been given to the supernatural\npower exhibited by Apleon, was the awed silence, and the bowed heads of\nall who had witnessed his satanic miracle.\n\nIts effect upon Cohen and the rest of the Jews, was, if possible,\ngreater than upon any of the Gentiles who had witnessed the wonder.\n\nUpon the awed silence there suddenly fell a deep growl of thunder.  The\nstartled people lifted their heads.  With almost an instantaneousness,\nthe heavens darkened.  It might well have been a moonless midnight, so\ndark did it suddenly become.\n\nThe thunders roared and cannonaded, while fierce lightnings, like\nliquid fires, raced earthwards down the blackened heavens.  No one,\nnative of the land, or foreigner, had ever known thunder or lightning\nsuch as now broke upon them.\n\nFor days afterwards men were as deaf as though born thus, stunned by\nthe thunder; and scores lost their sight from the lightning's flash,\nnever to recover it again.\n\nAs sudden as the darkness, there now came a hurricane blast that tore\nat the Temple walls as if it would hurl its gold and marbles into the\nvalley below.  No man could keep his footing in the courtyard or on\nthat summit, and everyone flung themselves prone to the earth--save\nApleon.  He stood smiling his sardonic, contemptuous smile.\n\nCohen and a few others crawled towards the wide, folding-doors of the\nTemple.  But the hurricane was before them, and the doors slammed to,\nand, in some way jammed.\n\nThe horses started in stampede, terrified by the storm.  Apleon spoke\nthe one word \"Soh!\" and they stood absolutely still, save for a long,\nshuddering kind of shiver that ran through each beast at the same\ninstant.\n\nNow, for a few minutes, the thunder roared louder and deeper, until it\ndrowned the thunderous roar of the wind.  Peal followed peal with\nhideous, horrible swiftness.  The lightning was a succession of fierce,\nwhite ribbons of blood-red flaming fire.\n\nFor ten minutes this extraordinary storm raged.  There was not one drop\nof rain.  Then, with a suddenness only equalled by that of the starting\nof the storm, it ceased.  The blackness of the heavens rolled away like\nmist before the rising sun, and while all the western horizon suddenly\nglowed with the fierce red glow of a furnace blaze, the sun appeared\nonce more over-head shining as though nought had happened.\n\nThe procession now re-formed, in the order in which it had arrived, and\nto the lilt of the gay music of the powerful band, the volatile spirits\nof the multitude revived, and the loud \"huzzahs\" rent the air as\nApleon--the Anti-christ--passed through the waiting masses of the\npeople.\n\nGeorge Bullen contrived to keep Apleon full in view.  In a general way\nno item of the procession of the ceremony at the Temple, or of aught\nelse had escaped him--but it was _in_, and _on_ Apleon that his special\nattention had been concentrated.\n\nHe watched the procession sweep through the great gate-way of the\nEmperor's Palace.  Then, when the last of the guests had passed in, the\nhuge folding gates closed, and the multitudes began to disperse.\n\nThe vast bulk of the people were lodged _out_side the city, and now\npoured out through the gates--for, with the practical re-building of\nthe city, the exits had been made very numerous.\n\nBullen was lodging with a Christian Syrian about half-a-mile outside\nthe city.  He moved on in a line with one of the exodus streams.\n\nAs he cleared the city, he became conscious that just ahead of him\nthere was a great and ever increasing gathering of people--a mighty\nthrong, in fact.  Arriving at the fringe of the crowd which grew closer\nand closer, as well as greater, every moment, he was amazed to see two\nvery striking looking Easterns, clothed in sackcloth, and standing high\nupon a mound of stone.  The appearance of the two men was\nextraordinary.  The face of the elder of the two was cast in a\nwonderful mould.\n\nGeorge Bullen was fairly well versed in the facial characteristics of\nall the known races--_past_ as well as present.  But this man's face\nbore no relation to any type he had ever seen depicted.  Eastern, it\nwas, it is true, but unlike, and more beautiful than anything he knew\nof.  The calm of it was wondrous, and George involuntarily found\nhimself saying over: \"Thou wilt keep him in _perfect peace_ whose mind\nis stayed on Thee,\" and instantly there flashed upon him, in connection\nwith that word, one other: \"Enoch _walked with God_, and was not, for\nGod took him.\"\n\n\"He might be Enoch returned to earth,\" he told himself.\n\nThe other man was a different specimen.  His features were strongly\nJewish marked.  There was a fierceness of eye, a power for a blazing\nwrath in his deep-set orbs.  Not that the first man's eyes and face\nwere incapable of fiery indignation, but they gave indication of having\nbeen schooled by long intercourse with the divine keeping power of the\nGod of Peace.\n\nThe men were evidently preachers--prophet-preachers.  They spoke\nalternately, their voices clear, far-reaching, their tones perfectly\nnatural--there was no raising of the voice--yet reaching as far as the\nfarthest listener.\n\nTheir message was a Testimony to God, to His power, His might, His\nHoliness, even to His mercy.  They told of judgments, near at hand,\nupon all who would not cleave to God in righteousness.  Then in deeply\nsolemn tones, they spoke of the presence of the \"Mark of the Beast,\"\nupon the persons of so many thousands of the people, and warned all who\nwould not discard the badge, and throw over their allegiance to\nApleon,--\"The Anti-christ--that they would presently share in the awful\ndestruction which should overtake Anti-christ and his followers.\"\n\nA roar, savage and full as from ten thousand lions, with the snarl of\nwolves in it, greeted this last part of the testimony, while a thousand\nthroats belched forth the cry:\n\n\"Down with them! murder them!\"\n\nThere was a savage rush towards the sackclothed prophets.  But though\nthe multitude of would-be murderers swept over, around, and past the\nmound on which the two faithful witnesses had been standing, and though\nthey did not _see_ them disappear, yet they were not found.\n\n\"_And when they shall have completed their Testimony, the Beast that\ncometh up out of the abyss shall make war with them, and overcome them,\nand kill them--._\"\n\n\"Yes,\" mused George Bullen, \"when they have completed their Testimony,\"\nand not an hour, or a day before.  For these are evidently God's two\nfaithful witnesses, Enoch and Elijah, the only two men who never passed\nthrough mortal death, and hence are the only two saints who can become\nGod's witnesses, in this hideous Anti-christ time, for, as witnesses,\nthey must be slain in the streets of the city of Jerusalem--\"_where\nalso their Lord was crucified_.\"\n\nThere was much angry talk, and savage swearing among the enraged,\nmystified, disappointed multitude, at the loss of their vengeance upon\nthe witnesses, but, had they known it, they had come off very lightly\nin being only disappointed, for God's witnesses had the power \"_when\nany one willed to injure them, to send forth fire out of their mouths,\nand to devour their enemies_,\" and in the days that were to follow this\nfirst encounter with them, the multitude would learn this to their cost.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nA LEBANON ROSE.\n\nWith the disappearance of the two witnesses there came a gradual\ndarkening of the heavens, until in the space of a couple of minutes,\nthe whole district became as dark as it had been when the sacrifice in\nthe Temple courtyard had finished.\n\nThunder and lightning accompanied the darkness, and this time heavy\nrain.  Baffled by the darkness, the multitude ran hither and thither,\naimlessly, wildly, in search of their homes.  Presently the vivid\nlightning flashes gave them fitful direction, and gradually the crowds\nmelted away.\n\nGeorge Bullen had swerved from his homeward way, to reach the crowd\nabout the \"two witnesses.\"  The gleaming lightning gave him his\ndirection now.  He was already drenched to the skin, for the rain was a\ndeluge.\n\nAs he moved on through the black darkness, (illumined only with the\noccasional lightning flashes) he stumbled over something.  Some\ninstinct told him it was a human form.  Stooping in the blackness, and\ngroping with his hands, he made out that the form was that of a slender\nwoman.  There was no movement, and in response to his question, \"are\nyou hurt?\" there came no reply.\n\nThe face, the lips which he touched with his groping fingers, were\nwarm, so that he knew it was not death, though the form was as still as\ndeath.\n\n\"Whoever she is,\" he mused, \"she will die in this storm if she is left\nhere.\"  So he stooped and gathered the drenched form up in his arms.\nHer head fell upon his breast, her limbs were nerveless in his clasp.\n\nAnother, a longer, a more vivid flash of lightning, came at this\ninstant, and showed him his path clearly, he was close to his lodgings.\n\nTwo minutes later he had reached the door of the house.  It was on the\nlatch, and he entered with his burden.  He found his way to his room,\nlaid the warm, breathing form down upon a rug upon the floor, and lit\nthe lamp.\n\nBy the light of the lamp he saw that the poor soul he had rescued, was\na sweet-faced Syrian girl, by whose side he had found himself standing\non the evening before, when he had stood in the throng on the Temple\nmount.  They had exchanged a few words of ordinary tourist-interchange,\nand he had been surprised to find that she could speak good English,\nthough with a foreign accent.\n\nBut realizing now that she needed immediate attention, if she was to be\nsaved from taking a chill, he lit a tiny hand-lamp and carrying it with\nhim to light his way, he went in search of the woman of the house.\n\nAs recorded on an earlier page, the people with whom he had found\nlodgment were Christian Syrians--a husband and wife.\n\nHe went all over the premises, but though he shouted several times,\nneither the husband or wife answered or appeared.  There was no sign of\nthem anywhere.\n\n\"They were probably caught, as I was, in the storm,\" he told himself,\nas he returned to where he had left the rain-soaked Syrian girl.\n\nHe had a bottle of mixture, which he always carried on Eastern travel,\nas a preventive of chill.  He poured out a little of the warming stuff,\nand raising the unconscious girl he poured a few drops through her\nparted lips.\n\nShe drank by mere instinct.  He repeated the experiment, and she caught\nher breath sharply as she swallowed the second draught.  A faint sigh\nescaped her, her eyelids trembled, and, a moment more they unclosed.\n\nAt first her gaze was unseeing, then slowly she took in his anxious\nface.  \"Where--am--I?\" she murmured brokenly.\n\n\"You are safe, and with friends!\" he replied.  \"I stumbled over you in\nthe road, you had fallen, somehow, in that dreadful thunder-storm.\"\n\nHer eyes met his, and for one long instant she seemed to be searching\nhis face.  Then a weak, little smile trembled about her mouth, as she\nsaid:\n\n\"We met last night--I remember I thought how _true_ your face was--I\ncan trust you, I know.\"\n\nA sigh, more of content than aught else, escaped her, and he felt how\nshe let herself rest more fully in his supporting arm.  He gave her\nanother sip of the cordial, and she thanked him as some sweet child\nmight have done.\n\nFor a moment she lay silent and still, then she spoke again, in a\nvague, speculative way, as though she was searching her mind for the\nclue:\n\n\"Ah, yes, I remember now.  The great darkness came on, after those good\nmen of God had spoken.  And the crowd got frightened and ran hither and\nthither,--to find their homes, I suppose--and in the darkness some\nrushed against me, knocked me down, and--and--\"\n\nShe shuddered, as she added, \"I believe some others kicked me and\ntrampled upon me, and--\"\n\n\"Are you hurt?\" he cried anxiously.  \"Do you feel as if any bone was\nbroken, anywhere?\"\n\nShe smiled back into his anxious face: \"Hurt? not much!  Certainly no\nbones are broken.  But I feel bruised and sore, and--so--\"\n\nShe shivered, as she added: \"so cold!\"\n\nHe awoke to the immediate necessity for her to get out of her wet\nclothes, and gently lifting her until she stood upon her feet, he said:\n\n\"Can you stand alone, do you think?\"\n\n\"Let go your hold,\" she answered, \"and I will see.\"\n\nVery reluctantly George released his hold of her, though his eyes were\nanxious, and his hands were stretched out within reach of her, lest she\nshould give way.\n\nShe put her hand to her head, as she said: \"I feel a little dizzy, but\nthat will pass off.\"\n\n\"When did you eat anything last?\" he inquired.\n\n\"Oh, I had a good breakfast, before I started out this morning.  If I\ncould lie down somewhere,--and sleep--for I slept but badly last\nnight--I think I should soon be all right.\"\n\nHe explained that he could not find the man or wife of the house, but,\n(pointing to a room beyond) he said:\n\n\"There is a bed there, and there are female clothes hanging in a recess\n(they were there when I occupied the room) go in there, dear child.\"\n\nShe seemed but a child, to him, so sweet and innocent was her face.\n\n\"Divest yourself of every rag of your wet clothes (drop them out of the\nwindow, and I will gather them up, and get them dry for you) chafe\nyourself with the towels you will find in the room, then wrap yourself\nin one of the sheets or rugs, and try and sleep.\"\n\n\"Ah, kind friend!  How good you are!\" she said, softly, a deep sense of\nwhat she owed him, (for he had doubtless, she realized, saved her life)\nmoving her heart strangely.\n\nWith the shy, tender grace of a child, she caught his hand and kissed\nit, leaving two great warm teardrops upon it, as she cried:\n\n\"May God reward you!  You saved my life!\"\n\nHer long silken lashes held great quivering drops upon them.  Her\nhair--what swathes there were of it--had become loosened, and hung\nabout her in long, thick, wet tresses.  Her cheeks were warmed to a\nvivid tinting by the cordial, the excitement by the deep emotion that\nfilled her, so that, in that moment she looked very beautiful.\n\nHe led her to the room he had indicated, and glancing around to see\nthat the towels were in the place, he said, \"what is your name?\"\n\n\"In English?\" she asked.  Then without waiting for him to reply, added:\n\"Rose!\"\n\n\"Mine is George!\" he returned.  Then with a final word of: \"Sleep, if\nyou can!\" he left her.\n\nWhen the hanging over the door-way had dropped behind him, and he was\nalone in his little living room, he tried to think out the many\nwonderful things that had happened since he had sallied forth at\nhalf-past six that morning.\n\nTaking his note-book from his breast, he tore the sheaf of short-hand\nnotes he had already made, along the perforated line, and began to\ncompose his message for the \"Courier\" in the code that had been\npreviously arranged.\n\nIt took him an hour and a half to complete the work, as writing in\ncode, took longer than the ordinary method.\n\nBy the time he had finished, it was past noon, and he wondered at the\nstillness of the house.  Once more he made a tour of the other part of\nthe premises, calling the names of both the man and woman of the house.\n\nThey were still absent.  It was very mysterious!  He could not know\nthat they were among the scores of those who had been trampled to death\nin the horrible darkness on the Temple mount that morning.\n\nPassing back to his room, he listened at the hanging over that inner\nroom, where the rescued girl lay.  He could hear her softly, regularly\nsnoring, and decided to get his message off while she slept.\n\nHe was a little dubious about leaving the house door unlocked, yet\nfeared to lock it lest the man and wife should return.\n\nHe was gone an hour.  Both going and returning, he had been struck with\nthe general desertedness of the streets, but realized that in all\nprobability every one would be resting after the scenes of the morning.\n\nEntering the house he found it exactly as he had left it, and beginning\nto feel hungry, he hunted about for the wherewithal to make a meal.\n\nDeciding that his _protege_ might soon be stirring, he carried into his\nliving-room all the materials for a meal.  When he had spread his\ntable, he remembered the clothes for his _protege_ (he had spread them\nin the sun to dry, having found them where she had dropped them, by his\ninstructions, out of the window.)\n\nPassing quietly back to the hanging between the two rooms, he listened\nagain.  This time she was awake and softly humming the air of \"The\nsands of Time are sinking.\"\n\nLifting the hanging a few inches at the bottom he thrust the clothes\nunderneath, and called:\n\n\"Do you feel well enough to get up, Rose?  If you do, I will make\ncoffee, and we will have a meal!\"\n\n\"Thank you, thank you, good George!\" she cried, with the _naivete_ of\nan innocent child.  \"I will dress and come out, for oh, I am so hungry\nand thirsty!\"\n\nHe smiled to himself at her sweet child-likeness, and hurried away to\nmake the coffee.\n\nWhether the aroma of the coffee reached her senses and hurried her, it\nwould be impossible to say, but certainly, in an incredibly short space\nof time (for a woman) she drew aside the hanging a little, and asked:\n\n\"May I come, please?\"\n\nHe flung aside the hanging, his smile, as well as his voice saying:\n\"Come!\"\n\nThen as she appeared before him, bright, fresh from her sound restful\nsleep, her hair carefully groomed and coiled in a crown on her head,\nher cheek glowing with the prettiest, tenderest blushes, he thought how\nbeautiful she was!\n\nA woman, evidently in years, (as she would be judged _in the east_) yet\na pure child in character and manner.\n\n\"How do you feel, little Rose?\" he asked, taking her hand in greeting.\n\n\"A little stiff,\" she answered, \"but that is more from the bruises than\nought else, I think, for--\"\n\nHer cheeks warmer to a deeper tint, as she said:\n\n\"I have a dozen or more bruises!\"\n\n\"Let us sit down,\" he laughed, \"and we can do two things at once, eat\nand talk.\"\n\nHalf an hour passed; they ate and drank, and grew almost merry as they\nexchanged a few notes.  When, however, in response to her question:\n\n\"But you are English, George?\" he replied.\n\n\"Yes!  Though as I speak Syrian perfectly, and Hebrew fairly, it seems\nbetter for me not to appear to be English, hence my Syrian costume.  I\nfeel I can trust you, Rose, my new little friend, so I do not mind\ntelling you that I belong to a great English newspaper, and as many of\nthose _now_ in authority are opposed to our paper, I am passing as a\nSyrian, that I may better get my reports, for our paper, through to\nEngland.\"\n\nShe had started when he began to speak of his connection with a great\nEnglish Newspaper.  Now she interrupted him, saying, in a cautious\nwhisper:\n\n\"Are you Mr. Ralph Bastin?\"\n\nIt was his turn to start now, and in amaze, he cried:\n\n\"No, I am not Ralph Bastin, but I _am_ his representative.  But----\"\n\nHis voice grew hoarse with excitement, as he added, low and cautiously:\n\n\"What do you know about Ralph Bastin?\"\n\nShe glanced frightenedly around, then with her finger raised, she\nwhispered:\n\n\"The very air seems full of spies here, as it was at Babylon.\"\n\nShe leant towards him until her lips almost touched his ear, and\nwhispered:\n\n\"Lucien Apleon, The Emperor, has decreed that Ralph Bastin is to be\nslain!\"\n\n\"Tell me more, Rose, trust me absolutely, dear child!\"  His voice was\nvery hoarse as he spoke.\n\n\"How do you know this?\" he added.  \"But perhaps you had better tell me\nwho and what you are, dear child!\"\n\nHe leant to her that his voice might be a whisper only, for he realized\nher warning of a moment ago.  \"Do not fear, dear child, I shall hold as\nsacred as my faith in God, anything that you tell me!\"\n\nShe laid her pretty little plump hand in his, and looked at him\nconfidingly out of her great Eastern liquid eyes, as with a beaming\nsmile, she said:\n\n\"I could not be afraid of you, good George, you saved my life, and----\"\n\nShe sighed, and there was a sound of supreme content this time in the\nsigh.  \"No,\" she went on, \"I could not be afraid of you, my saviour\nfrom death.  And I can, I will, confide in you, for I sorely need a\nfriend, and I feel, I know I can trust you.  I had been asking God,\nyesterday, to help me, to guide me to a friend, and I feel that He has\nsent you into my life at this point when I, a lone girl, need most a\nfriend.  Someday I may be able to tell you all the story of my life.\nIt will be enough here, however, to tell you that, for two months, I\nhave been in Babylon, with my brother--my only living relative, as far\nas I know.  Babylon----\"\n\nShe shuddered as she repeated the name, and her face flushed scarlet,\nthen paled as swiftly, while a look of horror leaped into her eyes, and\nshe gazed fearfully round as though she feared some terror of the foul\nand mighty city might even here have pursued her.\n\n\"No tongue dare, no tongue _can_ tell a thousandth part of the\nabominations of that sink of iniquity.  I came here with my brother\nthree days ago, and he has joined hands with \"The People of the Mark.\"\nHe is clever, very clever!  They know that, and because he will be\nuseful to them, he has been placed in high office among them, and----\"\n\nShe paused abruptly, and with another frightened glance around,\nwhispered:\n\n\"Do you know what 'the mark' is, and what it means?\"\n\n\"Is it what has been flying over the 'Eternal City' here, in the centre\nof that great white flag that floats over the Apleon Palace?  I think\nyou must mean that, and if so it is the two Greek characters for the\nname of Christ, with a crooked serpent put between them!\"\n\n\"Yes!\" the one word came in merest whisper from her, then leaning\ncloser to him, she went on:\n\n\"But do you know, George, the _import_ of the foul Mark?\"\n\n\"I believe I do!\" he whispered back.  \"I believe it is what our\nScriptures call the 'Mark of the Beast.'  If that be so, as I am\nconvinced it is, it is the brand of the Anti-christ--and----\"\n\nHe, too, seemed to feel the need of increased caution, for he glanced\nfearsomely round, as he added:\n\n\"And I believe I know who the Anti-christ will prove to be.\"\n\nShe shot a swift glance upwards to the casement window, and with\nupraised finger, leant towards him until her warm lips touched his ear,\nas she repeated what she had said once before:\n\n\"The very air here, seems full of spies.  It was so at Babylon!\n_Lucien Apleon_ is THE ANTI-CHRIST.\"\n\nAgain her frightened glance travelled to the casement Then she went on:\n\n\"My brother always confided everything to me.  And in telling me the\nsecret of the Emperor Apleon--though exactly how he learned it, I\ncannot say--he never dreamed that I should have any scruples about\nserving the Anti-christ.  But I love God!  I missed the great\n'Rapture,' when God's true children were taken 'into the air' with\ntheir Lord, but, though it cost me torture, or my very life, during\nthese coming days of awful persecution, I can do no other than cleave\nto our Lord.\"\n\nIn an unconscious gesture of loyalty to her God, she had drawn herself\nup to her full height, while her vow of fidelity had been uttered aloud.\n\nFor awhile longer they talked on together of Babylon, of \"The Mark,\" of\nAnti-christ, of the probable coming days of horror and persecution,\nthen a chance question of his as to how she came to learn to speak\nEnglish so well, led her to say:\n\n\"Shall I tell you my story?  The sun is too hot for you to go out for\nanother two hours, and----\"\n\n\"Yes, tell me, Rose,\" he cried, not giving her time to finish her\nsentence.\n\nHe glanced towards a low Eastern couch on the other side of the room,\nas he added: \"But before you begin, I want to see you lying upon that\ncouch; after all you have passed through, and in view of unexpected\ncontingencies that may arise, any hour, you must rest all that you can.\"\n\nHe made her comfortable, with cushions, on the couch, then seating\nhimself cross-legged on the floor by her side--the posture was a\nfavorite one of his, and had been acquired, long ago, during his\nresidence in the East--he bade her go on.\n\n\"I was born,\" she began, \"in a little village at the foot of Lebanon,\nbut when I was only six years old my father got work in the\nneighbourhood of Trebizond, and we migrated thither.  Within a week of\nour arrival, at our new home, I became a scholar in a lady Missionary's\nclass of native children, where, among other things, I learned English.\nWhen I was eleven, my father and mother died of small-pox, and I became\na little waiting-maid to my dear American missionary teacher.  Miss\nRoosevelly, living in the house, with her, of course.\n\n\"My brother Hassan, was eight years older than me, and he lived with a\nschoolmaster, in Constantinople.  I had also a dear old grandmother, my\nmother's mother, who lived about four miles from the tiny mission where\nI lived, and, now and again, I was allowed to visit grandmother for two\nor three days at a time.\n\n\"My life was an even, regular, but never monotonous one, for I was\nalways busy.  Then, a year or more ago, there came an awful event in my\nlife.  I was sixteen, and I had gone to spend a few days with dear old\ngrandmother, and----\"\n\nThere came the faintest click in her voice, and she glanced toward the\nlemonade caraffe.  His watching eyes saw her need, and he reached the\ncaraffe and a glass, and poured out a draught.  She took a big gulp,\nthen sipped more slowly.  And while she drank, he watched her and he\nrealized more than ever, how true and sweet as well as how beautiful\nher face was.\n\nYoung as she was, in development she was a woman, as is invariably the\ncase of maidens born under tropical skies.  It is true that her beauty\nwas, as yet, of the tender, budding type, but it was the full bursting\nbud of the queen of flowers, and already foreshadowed the wondrous\nbrilliance of the full-blown blossom.\n\nEastern though she was, she had blue eyes--forget-me-not-blue--though\nthe long silken eye-lashes, and the thin, arched, pencilled-like\neye-brows were raven black.  When she had finished her lemonade, and\nhad replaced the glass on the table, she went on with her story.\n\n\"It was the first evening of my home-coming to dear grandmother.  The\nsun was setting, and the roseate gold of his departing glory was\nilluminating everything.  How lovely it all was!  The gold of that\nsunset--I shall never wholly forget it, I think--was everywhere.  It\nglittered among the tree-tops, gilded the hill-crests, changed the\neastern horizon into a molten sea of warmest gold and colour; and----\"\n\n\"Transfigured Rose, eh,\" he broke in, with a smile.\n\nShe laughed merrily as she said: \"I am afraid I was forgetting myself,\ntalking so much description!\"\n\nA shadow passed over her face, as she went on:\n\n\"How quickly everything was to be changed, though!  Grandmother's voice\ncalled me from inside, Come, Rose, my child, and we will give God our\nevening chant!\n\n\"I am afraid I sighed, as I turned from watching all that sunset\nloveliness.  It was not that I disliked our evening devotions, but\nsomehow felt that evening--as I have often done, in fact--that I would\nfain worship God with all His evening miracle before my eyes, and would\nfain then have lingered on in the glorious after-glow, though that\nafter-glow lasted all too short a time.\n\n\"I turned into the house, but I did not close the door, for it would\nhave seemed like sacrilege to have shut out all that glory.  I took my\nplace by grandmother's side, with my hands folded across my breast, as,\ntogether, we chanted 'Our Father who art in Heaven!  Hallowed be Thy\nname.'\n\n\"How it all remains with me, and ever will, all the little items of\nthat last night of dear grandma's life!  I can seem to hear her voice\neven now, she was very old, and it quavered and quivered like one of\nour hill-country dulcimers!\n\n\"Our chant over, grandmother prayed, she prayed extra long that night\nand our quick night had come down before she had finished.  I lit a\nlittle lamp, and we went to bed.  Then----\"\n\nA shudder passed through her beautiful, reclining frame, as she\ncontinued, and her voice had a new note in it, a note of pain:\n\n\"It was about midnight.  The whole country slept.  There were sixteen\nsmall houses in our little village.  They all huddled close together,\n(for once there had been a wall enclosing them) suddenly there was a\nsound of gun-fire.  I leaped from my bed--Ah, me!  I cannot describe\nit.  In half-an-hour the awful tragedy was completed.  Every old man\nand woman was killed, slain with a sword, or hacked to death, or\nspeared.  Babies, and little children were brained against the walls of\nthe houses; strong men--fathers, lovers, sons--had been murdered with\nevery wantonness of savagery conceivable.  The only persons spared had\nbeen the budding girls, and one or two of the best looking of the women.\n\n\"Everything of value, that was readily portable, had been seized, each\nraider keeping his own lootings.  Then, at last, at a given signal, the\nmurderers and robbers reformed themselves into a solid company, and\nrode away, setting fire to the village in half-a-dozen separate places\nbefore they left.\n\n\"I was, of course, one of the girls whose life had been spared.  The\nman who had seized upon me, when, in my fright, I had run from my bed\nto the cottage door, had flashed the light of a torch upon me, and even\nnow I can recall the fierce delight and satisfaction that leaped into\nhis greedy eyes, and the manner of his mutterings:\n\n\"Good!  Good!  She'll _sell_ well!\"\n\n\"He stood over me while I dressed warmly, then hurried me out into the\nopen again.  Grandmother had made no sound, given no sign of waking,\nand I wondered.  I wanted to go into the little room where her bed was,\nbut my captor would not let me--I never saw her again, and can only\nfear that, if God had not already taken her in her sleep (and sometimes\nI think this must have been the case), she was slain with the rest of\nthe old people.\n\n\"Of the next week I have no distinct remembrance.  I believe I\ntravelled, travelled, travelled, ate, drank, slept, but all my\nfaculties seemed numbed, and my mind was largely a blank.  It was when\nI was being taken into Constantinople, that I began to arouse from my\nstrange mental and physical stupor.\n\n\"It was through the cool mist of the morning that I got my first\nglimpse of the city of which I had heard so much.  Santa Sophia, rising\nlike some beautiful dream-structure, with the points of its four light,\nairy, minarets flashing in the sunlight.  Then, little by little,\nkiosks, tall sad-looking cypresses, sycamores, and the other\nthousand-and-one wonders of that city of beautiful and revolting\ncontradictions, took shape and form.\n\n\"By seven o'clock we were in the heart of the city, and breakfasting.\nMy captor had treated me with a certain rough kindness through all the\njourney, and done his best to hearten me.  He had told me my fate--to\nbe sold into a harem--but he had pictured it as glowingly, as\nglitteringly as his rough eloquence would let him.  And, with all the\nblood of countless centuries of Eastern races coursing in my veins, and\nin the more or less stunned, stupified condition in which that awful\nnight-tragedy had left me, I yielded, for the time, to the fatalism\nwith which we Easterns are familiarized from our babyhood.\n\n\"My captor was no novice at the business of selling a girl, neither was\nhe a stranger to the house to which he had taken me.  For, after\nbreakfast, he showed me into a little room with one quaint, Arabesque\nwindow.  In this room there was a bath, and every toilette requisite,\nwhile, from a tin box that he brought in, he took out a number of most\nexquisite outer and under garments.  Telling me to make myself as\nbeautiful-looking as I knew how, he presently left me.\n\n\"I am afraid that for a time I was too overwhelmed to do more than\nweep.  Then as I remembered that it would be the worse for me if I\nangered my master, I bathed and anointed myself, though I remember how\nonce I paused, as I scented my body, and said, through my blinding\ntears: 'This is like preparing myself for a sacrificial altar.'\n\n\"I was sitting an hour later, on an ottoman in the room outside the\nbath-room, when I heard voices, and steps, and a moment later my\nmaster, accompanied by a little tub of a man, with fatted-hog kind of\nface, greasy-looking, and wrinkled with fat, out of which peered two\ntiny black eyes--like currants stuck in a bladder of lard--and\ntwinkling most villainously, entered the room.\n\n\"He was very richly dressed, and bore the name of Osman Mahmed, and, as\nI afterwards learned, he was very high in office and in favour with the\nSultan.  He was fabulously rich, and, excepting the Sultan, had the\nmost extensive harem in the city.\n\n\"I had, as a child, learned the Turkish tongue, and had no difficulty\nin following all that passed between the seller and buyer.  Then after\nbeing lightly pinched, pressed, and squeezed, and ogled, the bargain\nwas struck, the money for my purchase was paid, and my captor was\ninstructed to take me, veiled, to the purchaser's palace at two o'clock\nthat afternoon.\n\n\"I was taken, as arranged, to the Palace, and given in charge of the\nhead eunuch.  A few minutes later, two female slaves took me to a large\ndressing-room.  Here I was bathed again, and sprayed with a very\nvaluable perfume, a curious blending of rose and patchouli.\n\n\"I have three crosses tatooed on my body.  Each cross consists of\neleven blue dots, one on each of my shoulders, and one on my breast,\nand I noticed a look of horror come into the faces of the two\nslave-women who were attending me, but neither of them asked any\nquestion of me.\n\n\"My hair was well-groomed, and beautifully dressed, and strings of gold\nsequins, and glittering jewelled stars were twisted amid the swathes of\nmy hair.  Then came my robing in garments, so rich, so wonderful, that\nthey almost took my breath away.  When the very last touch had been\ngiven to this wonderful toilette, one of the attendants gave me a\n_cachou_ from a box to sweeten my breath.\n\n\"Then, for a time, I was left alone, a strange and awful fear of some\ncoming evil stealing over me.  For I could not forget the looks of fear\nand of terror of the slave-women, at the sight of the crosses on my\narms and breast.\n\n\"Wondering what type of place I was in, I got up and looked out of the\ncasement.  A marble court lay just below the window, and, in the centre\nof the court was a most beautiful marble basin, quite twenty feet\nacross, from the heart of which there rose a fountain, with a graceful\n_jet d' eau_, flinging its spray high in the air.  Two flights of\nbalustraded steps led down into the basin, a few white doves fluttered\nabout the steps.  Flower borders and beds were artistically dotted\nabout the court; and cool-looking, shady bowers clung to the high walls\nlike swallow-nests to the house-eaves.\n\n\"But the beauty of all I saw could not drive from me the strange sense\nof dread of some coming disaster.  Suddenly, a huge Sudanese eunuch\nappeared, and signed for me to follow him; and a minute later I was\nushered into a room where the chief eunuch, and that hideous little tub\nof a Vizier, who had bought me, were.\n\n\"The fat, greasy face was distorted with rage, the eyes were blood-shot\nand fierce, and his voice was almost a scream, as he cried out to me:\n\n\"'What is this they tell me of you, you Lebanon beast?  Are you one of\nthose dogs, the Christians?'\n\n\"'I am!' I replied.\n\n\"The fat little beast on the dais spat at me, the foul expectoration\nfalling short of my robe by barely a foot.\n\n\"'Your body, the body I bought,' he yelled, 'is damned by the cursed\nsign of the cross, they tell me.'\n\n\"I gave him no reply, and he yelled, 'I will see for myself.'  Then to\nthe two eunuchs, he yelled: 'Strip her!'\n\n\"The men did his bidding, and nude, and shamed, I stood before that\nfoul tyrant.\n\n\"'Bring her closer!' he yelled, and the big Soudanese lifted me bodily,\nand dropped me upon my feet on a mat not a yard from the Vizier.\n\n\"He glared at the tatooed cross upon my breast, then with a fearful\ncurse, he spat full into my breast, the vileness running down the\nsacred sign.  Then, as a fiendish look filled his face, he ordered the\nchief eunuch to send me for sale in any market that would be open for\nsuch carrion.\n\n\"At a word from the chief eunuch, the big Soudanese snatched me up in\nhis brawny hands, tucked me under his arm, as a father might laughingly\ncarry his five-year-old boy, and bore me off.\n\n\"The rest of the story is all too wonderful for more than the merest\noutline.  I was being taken through the streets, veiled, of course, to\na dealer in girls, when suddenly I saw my brother Hassan, coming\ntowards me.  My veil, of course, would prevent his knowing me, but\ntearing off my veil, I leaped towards him, crying:\n\n\"Hassan, Hassan, save me!\"\n\nShe paused in her recital, her voice choked with deep emotion for a\nmoment, then, as she recovered herself, she went on:\n\n\"'How wonderful are God's providences!  His ways are past finding out!'\n\n\"Hassan was walking--when I met him--with an officer of the American\nEmbassy--Hassan was clerking for this officer--and though the eunuch\ntried to make a fuss, when he knew who the officer was, he scuttled\nback to the Palace as hard as he could go.\n\n\"That night, Hassan and I left the city, lest there should be any\nattempt to seize me, and--\"\n\nShe paused suddenly, and he leaped to his feet at the same instant,\nfor, from the direction of the city, there came sounds of loud and\nprolonged hurrahing.\n\n\"I will go out and see what is going on!\" he said.  \"Perhaps,\" he\nadded, \"in these disturbed times, it would be well for you to fasten\nthe doors, while I am gone.  Whether the people of the house or I,\nreturn first, you can easily ascertain who it is, before you open.\nMeanwhile, find your way to the other parts of the house, and make\nyourself coffee or anything else that you may need--and,\"\n\nHe held out his hand--: \"Good bye, for the present, and, another time,\nyou must tell me the rest of your wonderful story, and especially how\nit came about that you knew so much of Christianity and yet did not\nshare in the 'Rapture' of Christ's own.\"\n\nWith the warmth of her Southern, Eastern nature, remembering how he had\nsaved her, she lifted the hand he gave her, to her lips, and kissed it\npassionately, leaving two heavy tear-drops on it, when she dropped it.\n\nA moment later she was alone.  She had barred the outer doors, when he\nleft.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nHERO-WORSHIP.\n\nNeither George Bullen, or the \"Lebanon Rose,\" whom he had so\nopportunely saved, had had any idea of how rapidly time had fled during\nthat afternoon.  On reaching the street, and looking at his watch,\nGeorge was amazed to find that it was past six o'clock.  Moving as\nbriskly as it was wise to do, so as not to call attention to himself,\nhe made his way to where the noise of the multitude told him that\nsomething extra was happening.\n\nHe soon discovered that the excitement came from a kind of impromptu\nmass meeting that had followed upon the appearance of Apleon riding on\nhis now celebrated black charger.\n\nThe first thing which struck Bullen was the fact that, already, every\none seemed to be wearing the \"Covenant\" sign--\"The Mark of the Beast.\"\nHe himself appeared to be the only person who was not wearing it.\nAnd--was it fancy? or did Apleon's eyes fix on him with a momentary\nscowl.\n\nThe second thing which struck him, was the intense admiration and\nhomage of the great crowd--all classes alike seemed absolutely\ninfatuated--for this Emperor-Dictator of the world, Lucien Apleon, \"The\nAnti-christ.\"\n\nTwo cries rose loud and laudatory from the multitude \"Who is like\nApleon?  Who dare oppose him?\"  It was the ultimate fruit of the\njingoism of the previous years!\n\n\"This is what John beheld,\" Bullen told himself, \"_all the world\nwondered after the Beast_!\"  They are, already, worshipping him, in\ntheir poor deluded hearts, as a God!\n\nAlmost, it seemed to the young journalist as though there was headed up\nin this one man--the Man of Sin--all that men through the by-gone ages\nhad worshipped.  The captivating power of ancient Babylon.  The mighty\nprowess of the Medo-Persian, the power that held all the world in\nsubjection and awe.  The Grecian polish.  The Roman legal acumen, and\nmartial perfection.  All these things seemed combined in this one\nnotable man.  And added to all this, there was his resistless\nattractiveness, his beauty of face, his grace of form, his wondrous\nvoice, his regal air--\"_all the world wondered after him_.\"\n\nAs, after awhile, he walked slowly homewards, George Bullen asked\nhimself the question:\n\n\"How can it have come to pass, that in comparatively so short a time,\nit should be possible for all the world to be ready to yield an almost\nidolatrous obedience to one man?\"\n\nUnconsciously to himself his pace slackened, it was as though his mind\nhad willed to have time to review things that should answer his\nquestion, before he should reach his rooms, and the consideration\nshould be broken into.\n\n\"There was first,\" he mused \"that gradual falling away from the Truth\nof God, for a full half of the nineteenth century--very gradual, very\nslow, and very subtle at first, but growing bolder each year, until, in\nthe early part of the first decade of the twentieth century, men\ncalling themselves Christians, taking the salaries of Christian\nministers, openly denied every fundamental truth of the Bible--Sin, the\nFall, The Atonement, The Resurrection, the Immaculate Birth of Christ,\nHis Deity, the Personality of Satan, the Personality of The Holy\nSpirit, and everything else in God's word which clashed with the flesh\nof their unregenerate lives.\n\n\"Then there was the giving heed to seducing spirits _and teachings of\ndemons_ (demonology, called spiritism) '_forbidding to marry_'\n(doctrine of Lust, known as 'Free Love.')\n\n\"Great forces were at work during the latter part of the nineteenth\ncentury, and more especially in the early part of the twentieth, all of\nwhich were preparing the way for the Anti-christ.\n\n\"What blinded intellects called 'Progress,' was really Apostasy.  And\nScientists, Materialists, and Humanists, and the _world's_ teachers\nwere all looking for some great outstanding genius, some super-man.\n\n\"The Believing Church, before the 'Rapture,' had its Hope, a Hope given\nby God of _A Man_ who should head all things up in Himself, and clothe\nHis Church with His own glory.  And that Man came, the Man Christ\nJesus, the Lord of Glory.  And all the time the world had _its_ hope,\nand just as Christ, the Hope of the Church, said '_I will come again_,'\nso He also said, as regards the world's hope, '_Another shall come in\nhis own name_,' and now--\"\n\nGeorge Bullen paused in his walking and looked back to where the\nlaudatory shouts of the deluded multitude, still rose around Apleon.\n\n\"And now,\" he continued, \"that other _has_ come, come in his own name,\nand the world has received him.  As late as nineteen hundred and eight,\none of the world's so-called 'great thinkers,' a D.D., too, said:\n\n\"'We still wait for _The Genius_ who shall state our fundamental faith\nin accordance with that insight which the _modern man_ has gained.'\n\n\"That '_great thinker_,' if he is living, ought now to be satisfied,\nfor his '_Genius_' has appeared.  And if he still possesses a Bible,\nlet him turn to Revelation, thirteen-eighteen, and he will know how all\nhis fancied man-progress was prophesied for nearly two thousand years\nago in the words: '_Here is wisdom.  Let him that hath understanding\ncount the number of the beast; for it is_ THE NUMBER OF MAN; _and his\nnumber is 666_.'\n\n\"Oh, yes, in a hundred and one ways, the coming of the Anti-christ, and\nthe consequent worship of his Satanic-energized personality, was\nwell-paved; for the world relegated to the limbo of the past, God's\nevangel as effete, superstitious, worn-out, and it was then prepared\nfor the Devil's lie, the Great Delusion.\"\n\nBy this time George's feet had carried him to the door of the house.\nHe knocked, as arranged before leaving, three slow, deliberate knocks\nand two others, sharp, quickly-following.\n\nAlmost instantly Rose appeared at the door.  She had prepared an\nevening meal, and over the supper-table he told her all that he had\nseen and heard, while out, adding:\n\n\"The whole world will be abjectly at the feet of that man of Satan,\npresently.\"\n\nFor a few moments they talked on together, then she rose to clear the\ntable.  His eyes followed her in all her movements, for, in spite of\nher bruised stiffness, all that she did was done so deftly, and every\nmovement of her beautiful form was full of the grace of perfect ease.\n\nNow, almost for the first time, it came to him with full seriousness,\n\"What am I to do with her? since, saving her, housing her I have, to a\ncertain extent, made myself responsible for her?\"\n\nWhen she returned to the room, after clearing the last thing from the\ntable, he said:\n\n\"We must face your future, Rose!  What are your plans, or haven't you\nany?\"\n\n\"I am afraid I have no plans,\" she returned.  \"You see, good George, I\nwas so terrified at all I heard from my brother, that I simply got away\nas quickly as I could, without any plan for the future, other than that\nthere has always been, at the back of my mind, an idea, that should I\never (from any cause whatever) become a refugee, I should make my way\nto England.  For, rightly or wrongly; I believe the peoples of all the\nworld have always associated with England the two thoughts of safety\nand liberty.\"\n\nLifting her eyes to his, a bright smile filling all her face, she went\non:\n\n\"I am not without money.  I have nearly twenty-five pounds with me.\nThe question is, where would one--who would rather die than wear the\n'Mark of the Beast'--be safest?  In England, do you think?\"\n\n\"I don't know, Rose.  _My_ place is there, because my _duty_ lies\nthere.  And now that I have, I think, finished all that I can do here,\nI ought to be getting back, at once.  I ought, I think, to go to-night.\nAt ten-thirty there is a good service to the West, but I cannot leave\nyou alone here.  I fear that death, in some way, must have overtaken\nthe people of this house, so that I cannot remain here, but must leave\nthe house to its fate.  But about you, Rose?  I cannot leave you, like\nthe house, to your fate!\"\n\nWith the absolute trust of a little child, she stretched her hands\ntowards him, saying:\n\n\"Good George, my saviour already from one dreadful death, save me again\nplease.  Take care of me until we get to England, take me with you, I\nwill be no expense to you, I will give no trouble, I will--\"\n\nHer clinging, child-like trust moved him greatly.  He took the two\npretty, plump little hands in his, and holding them in a clasp, firm\nand tight, as though by his grip upon her he would give her an\nassurance of safety, he said:\n\n\"Take you with me, little one, of course I will.  And now that is\nsettled we will talk over our plans, for I think we ought to leave by\nthat ten-thirty Western-bound service.  Each hour after to-night, the\nservice will become more crowded, and we had better avoid the crowd, if\nwe can.\"\n\nGeorge Bullen had never had much to do with women.  No woman had ever\nquickened by one extra beat his heart or pulse.  Yet now he felt\nhimself strangely, mysteriously drawn to this sweet young Lebanon girl.\nHe realized that it was no time for love-making, yet he would have been\nof marble not to have been moved by her trust in him, and by her sweet,\ngracious personality.\n\nAt ten-thirty that night they were clear of the place, and\nhomeward-bound to England.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nANTI-\"WE-ISM.\"\n\nSir Archibald Carlyon, proprietor of the \"Courier,\" and Ralph Bastin's\nemployer, had just arrived at the \"Courier\" office.  The whilom\nmiddle-aged, sprightly old man was as bowed and decrepit as a man of\nninety.\n\nAs he entered the editorial private room, Ralph, for one instant, did\nnot recognize him.  Then, as he realized who it was, he sprang forward\nwith an almost son-like solicitude, and helped him to a chair.\n\n\"Sir Archibald, what has happened?\" he cried.\n\nThe old man lifted weary, hopeless eyes, out of which all the old-time\nflash had gone, and nothing but heavy dullness remained.  \"Have _you_\nheard from my boy, from George?\" he asked.\n\n\"No, why, is there anything the matter, Sir Archibald?\"  Ralph's tones\nwere full of alarmed anxiety.\n\nThe baronet's hand had been thrust into his breast-pocket, as he spoke.\nHe took out a letter and handing it to Ralph, groaned out the two words:\n\n\"Read that!\"\n\nRalph caught his breath as his eyes took in the first lines: \"Dear\nUncle, by the time you receive this, I shall be beyond _this_ life,\nthough _where_--in that outer world, that world beyond--I can--not\ntell.\"\n\nRalph had not turned to the signature, he knew the writing too well,\nand knew it for bright, happy jocund George Carlyon's.  He read on:\n\n\"All that has happened in the world, of late, has driven me mad.  Dear\nold Tom Hammond wrote me fully of his change of heart, and besought me\nto face the whole matter of my 'eternal destiny,' as he termed it.  I\nsimply did not reply to his letter.  Three days later he was taken,\nwith all those others, to God.  Since then I have plunged into\neverything trying to drown thought, and remorse, but I cannot, so I am\nending all--there's a mad thing to say, as if death could end all.\nThough I do not doubt but what many other fellows will do what I am\ndoing now.  Good bye, good old Hunky Archie,\n\n  \"Your unhappy, rotten,\n      \"GEORGE.\"\n\n\nAs Ralph lifted his eyes from the paper he found Sir Archibald's fixed\nupon him, and the anguish in the poor old dull eyes drew tears to\nRalph's.\n\n\"We found him,\" cried the old man, \"in the boathouse, by the lake, with\na bullet through his temples.  My poor boy!  My noble boy!\"\n\nDry-eyes, but with a soul full of anguish, his features, too, twisted\nwith the anguish of his soul, the old man rocked himself for a moment\nin his chair.\n\nLooking up suddenly, he startled Ralph by the bitterness of his tones,\nas he said:\n\n\"God forgive me!  But I could find it easy to curse our clergy, our\nministers, our bishops, our teachers, for that when we looked to them,\nand _paid_ them, to tell us the right, the true thing, they let us go\non deluded by the belief that attendance upon the _outward form_ was\nsufficient to make us sure of Heaven in the future.  Why, Bastin, good\nfellow, do you know that more than half of the clergymen with whom I\nwas _well_ acquainted, are among those whom God has left behind, and\nnot one of those whom I know, thus left, has a mite of concern about\ntheir state, but seem to have gone right over to the Devil, if I may so\nsay it.  What does it all mean?\"\n\nRalph began to speak kindly, sympathetically to him, but the old man\nsuddenly interrupted with:\n\n\"And yesterday's article in 'the Courier' upon the opening of that\nTemple at Jerusalem, with all that about the 'Mark of the Beast;' that\nmock (I suppose it was _mock_) miracle, with the fire consuming the\nsacrifice, and then that awful portent of darkness, thunder, and\nlightning--but no rain.  It reminded me of the scene at Calvary, when\nthe Christ was crucified.  What _does_ it all mean, Bastin?\"\n\n\"What I have said in that article, I believe, Sir Archibald.  The\nevents in Jerusalem, during the last three days are the beginning of\nthe reign of Anti-christ.  For years, blinded by Satan whom most of us,\nunknowingly, served, and blinded by what we termed the 'Progress of the\nAge,' and of the World, but which ought to have been recognized for\nwhat it really was, the growing of the Apostasy, which has now begun to\nbe avowed and absolutely universal--blinded, I say, by all this, Sir\nArchibald, we suffered many mighty forces to stealthily, powerfully\nwork together so that the climax that has come upon us, was made\nabsolutely easy.\n\n\"If we had known our Bibles only a tithe as well as we knew our\nnewspapers, we should have seen that all we were glorying in, under the\nname of 'Progress,' was but a perfecting of human systems, leaving God,\nand His purposes, and His plans utterly out of the question.  We went\nto our churches, our chapels, we had a '_form_ of Godliness,' but we\ntacitly, and controversally, in print and speech, 'denied the _power_\nthereof.'  We not only made it possible, but easy 'for one man of\nMaster-mind to assume universal dominion, and to be the object of\nuniversal worship, as Apleon, the Anti-christ, soon will be.'\n\n\"And now, Sir Archibald, we are on the eve of a gigantic blend of all\nreligions, with all commercial undertakings.  The more I study God's\nword in the light of all that is happening, the more clearly I see this.\n\n\"How often, in the old days--say from the mid-eighties--professing\nChristian men, when expostulated with as to the difference between\ntheir professed creed of the Sunday, and their daily practice in\nbusiness, would say, 'oh, bosh! religion is one thing, business is\nanother!'  Then, as the years moved on, all kinds of trading concerns\nsprang up professedly religious, and conducted on professedly religious\nlines.  But even the truest Seers in the Church of God would hardly\nhave dared to predict that in a comparatively few years the final\noutcome of this trend in events would be an absolute coalescence into\none vast system of the world's many religious systems and of the\nworld's commerce.  The most that the Seers of God, in His church, dared\nto say of the future was that the _principle_ of such a _combined_\nsystem was suggested by the text of Rev. xiii.  For the second Beast\n'caused the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first\nBeast . . . .  And he had power . . . to cause that as many as would\nnot worship the image of the Beast should be killed.  And he causeth\nall, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a\nmark in their right hand, or in their foreheads, and _that no man might\nbuy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or\nthe number of his name_.'  Here, for nearly two thousand years, was the\nprinciple of this Hell-devised, Devil-developed combined system of\nreligion and commerce, prophesied, but now few even of God's choicest\nsaints realized all that would mean.\n\n\"The nineteenth and early twentieth century Christendom had lost the\nBible ideal of Christianity, and had substituted a very material idea\nfor God's idea.  The two decades--last of the nineteenth, and first of\nthe twentieth centuries--were marked by immense religious activities,\nbut while a merely religious movement might manufacture a Christendom,\nit could never make Christians.\n\n\"To be religious is one thing to be a Christian quite another thing.\nThe vast bulk of the members of the so-called Christian Churches of\nthose years, had never been born again from above.\n\n\"Christian in name (by virtue of membership in a Church; or by virtue\nof their subscription to a creed; or by a careful attendance upon the\nforms of their own particular church) they were yet _only religious_,\nbecause God's word regards those only as _Christians_ in whom Christ\nindwells, and none can be indwelt by Christ save those into whom He has\ncome in the birth from above.  ('Born again' ones.)  '_Except_ a man be\nborn again, he CANNOT _see_ the Kingdom of God' much more live in it.\n\n\"'That which is born of the _flesh_ is flesh,' and 'flesh and blood\ncannot inherit the Kingdom of God,' but only those _spiritually_\nborn--born from above.  We only become Christians by _re_-generation.\n\n\"In the years immediately before the 'Rapture,' _professing_\nChristians, and even _professedly_ Christian ministers, men who had\ntaken vows before God to preach the 'whole counsel of God,' and who\nreceived their salary avowedly for this purpose, scouted, and often\npublicly denied the necessity of the New Birth.  Blind leaders of the\nblind, they surely will have the greater punishment.\n\n\"But to return to the other thought.\n\n\"The last twenty years of the nineteenth century, and more so the first\nten years of the twentieth century, was marked as an age of\ncentralization and concentration of all kinds of interests, commercial,\nand religious.  Each year, the trusts and monopolies in the commercial\nworld became more and more concentrated, until it has become perfectly\neasy for Lucien Apleon, Emperor-Dictator of the World, to govern and\ncontrol (from that beautiful, hellish city, Babylon the great,) every\nbusiness interest in the world.\n\n\"Two days ago, at Jerusalem, the 'Covenant Sign'--so called--but which\nGod calls the 'Mark of the Beast'--was donned by three or four million\npeople, in the _holiday_ spirit.  But what was donned voluntarily, in a\nholiday spirit, forty-eight hours ago, will have to be _branded_ on\nevery one's person in the universe in three and a half years time--or\nless--or else the refuser of the degradation will have to seal his or\nher loyalty to God by their life.\n\n\"In three and a half years from now, Sir Archibald, the image of Lucien\nApleon, will be set up in the Temple of Jerusalem, and, I believe, in\nevery other great religious centre of the World--St. Peter's, Rome; St.\nPaul's, London; and so on in all our great cities, and world centres.\nI have been studying this subject naturally, and I find that one great\nscholar (Hengstenberg) says, that though _one_ image is spoken of, yet\nhaving regard to the sense of the original, 'a multitude of images is\nmeant.'\"\n\n\"But _religiously_, Bastin, religiously?\" cried the old man.  \"How did\nthe condition of things in the end of the nineteenth, and the beginning\nof the twentieth centuries, help to make it possible for all the world\npresently to _worship_ the Beast, and his image?\"\n\nThere was an almost childish querulousness of tone in the old baronet's\nquestioning.\n\n\"All those years,\" began Ralph, \"were marked by a wonderful activity on\nnew lines of deliverance for the human race, from the ills that had\ngrown up around the vast bulk of that race.  God's plan was for man's\n_regeneration_, a change of heart and life--a working from the centre\nto the circumference.  But the churches--_all_ denominations--of the\nyears we are speaking about, began endless schemes of deliverance that\nthe man, as they hoped, might be changed from the _out_side--that is to\nsay, man's idea of benefitting man was by an _outward_ reform.\n\n\"They failed to recognize the fundamental fact that all the 'Ills of\nHumanity,' so called, proceeded from man's natural depravity, from man\n_himself_, and not from his environment.  We failed to see that a\n_reformed_ race would only mean a perpetuation of all the old natural\nlusts, and presently, bring about a return to the old condition of\nthings, while a _regenerated_ race would hold reform in it, and that\nthat reform would not only be perpetual, but ever increasing in its\nperfecting.\n\n\"Then, too, the great religious denominations became fired with the\nidea of a consolidating, unifying process that should smelt down all\ndenominations into one.  To do this every type of religion should find\na place.  What would it matter if one or more of the religions denied\nthe Deity of Christ? that others did not accept the Bible as the\nInspired word of God and so on?  'The doctrine of Christ,' was\ngradually eliminated from almost all preaching and the doctrine of a\ndivine humanism--'The divinity of man,' became largely the new cult.\n\n\"I believe, from all that I can gather, one of the first steps towards\nthis elimination of 'the doctrine of Christ,' could be traced in the\ncontinued elimination from the various denominational hymn-books (as\n_new_ ones were issued beginning as far back as the late seventies) of\nhymns relating to the facts of the Atonement and other kindred\nsubjects, and the substitution of odes, poems, etc., in which\naspiration took the place of experimental religion.  The hymn-books of\nmore than one, or two, or three denominations, showed this retrograde\nmovement, through their several successive issues.\n\n\"Then, side by side with this _Anti_-christian movement, there went on\nsilently that gathering out from the world, and from the merely\nprofessing Christian church, those who were, by virtue of their New\nBirth, through faith in Christ, the recipients of Eternal life, and\nwho, when that glorious 'Rapture' took place awhile ago, were caught up\ninto the air as a _body_ of living believers to be joined for ever, to\ntheir head--Christ; thus robbing the world of what Christ Himself\ncalled 'the salt of the earth.'\"\n\nWith a groan, Sir Archibald cried:\n\n\"God help us, Bastin!  What fools we were!\"\n\nThen with a weary upward look into Ralph's face, he rose to his feet,\nsaying:\n\n\"I must be going.  I've arranged to meet the lawyers in half-an-hour\nfrom now.  Good-bye, dear fellow.  I will come up to town to see you,\nor you must come down to see me, before the wind-up of the paper.\nGood-bye.\"\n\nThe two men wrung each other's hand, then parted.\n\nTen minutes later George Bullen and Rose arrived.  Amazed to see his\nfriend with an extraordinary beautiful girl, Ralph was presently\nlistening to all the wonderful story of their meeting, etc.\n\nLater on, when, for a moment or two, the two men were alone together,\nin the inner room, Ralph asked George what he proposed to do with the\nbeautiful girl?\n\n\"There is but one thing I can do,\" he replied.  \"I must marry her, and\nthat soon.  It is no time, in the ordinary sense, to be thinking of\n'marrying and giving in marriage,' yet, under the circumstances, I can\ndo no other.  I care for her already, as I never cared for any woman,\nand her affection for me is touching in its clingingness.\"\n\nHe smiled a little sadly, as he added:\n\n\"It is well that there is a little company of us here in London,\nBelievers in God, and therefore believers in marriage.\"\n\n      *      *      *      *      *      *\n\nGeorge Bullen and Rose were married within the week of their landing in\nEngland.  The ceremony took place in a little company of believers, who\ngathered on Sunday (old-count of time) and once on a week-night, in a\nlittle hall that had been used for a Sunday School in the old days.\nSunday Schools, like many of the other religious institutions, of the\nold days before the \"Rapture,\" were quite a thing of the past.\n\nMarriage was one of the things of the past.  Some years before the\n\"Rapture,\" a booklet entitled \"We-ism\" had been published, in which the\nauthor had unblushingly declared: \"Women, _absolved from shame_,\nservitude, and inequality, shall be enfranchised, owners of themselves\n* * * We believe in the sacredness of the family and the home, _the\nlegitimacy of every child_, and the inalienable right of every woman to\nthe absolute possession of herself.\"\n\nThe doctrines and practice of \"affinity,\" the \"problem\" plays, and\n\"sex\" novels, of the first decade of the twentieth century, had all\nmaterially helped to make the unregenerate mind and heart ready to\nreceive \"free love\" in its widest, grossest forms.  While a certain\nteaching of \"Christian Science\" had had an overwhelming power in the\nsame direction.[1]\n\nAll these forces had helped to make the doctrine of illicit love\nacceptable in these early days of the Anti-christ reign, so that it was\nonly among the little gatherings of true Believers, that marriage was\nsanctified into the sacrament it had been in the _good, true_ old days.\n\n\n\n[1] We prefer, in a book of this character, to keep back the actual\nterms of the filthy statement.  Author.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\n\"THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION.\"\n\nThe three-and-a-half years since the Covenant with Lucien Apleon, on\nthe night before the opening at the Temple in Jerusalem, had been\nsigned, had practically expired.\n\nGod's judgments had been seen in many ways upon the earth during these\nforty-two months.  The position which Apleon now held, as the \"World's\nDictator,\" had not been the work of a day.  Wars, no longer local, but\npractically universal had, for many long months at a time, been the\norder of the history of the world.  \"Nation shall rise against nation,\nand kingdom against kingdom.\"\n\nThese wars occupying only months at this period, would have occupied\nscores of years had they been events of the mid-nineteenth century.\nBut with the perfection of hideousness--one might safely write\n_Hellishness_--of war's latest devices the work of destruction, and\nalmost annihilation became short and sharp.\n\nAerial warfare helped to bring about this consummation more speedily.\nThe firing of a bomb or of a torpedo from an aerial war engine often\naccomplished in an hour what could not have been accomplished, a few\nyears before, under months, often years of old-fashioned war.\n\nThese fearful conflicts were not confined to those of kingdom and\nnation against kingdom and nation, but citizens of one city fought with\nthemselves, civil war was \"on the rampage.\"  The lust of war, the lust\nof blood, born of vile passions, burned in the breasts of men and\nwomen--for with the growth of the \"woman's rights\" question, and the\nestablishment of the \"equality of the sexes,\" bands of women fought\nbands of women.\n\nThese Amazons, indeed, wrought even fouler cruelties and butcheries\nthan the men, for as there is no fouler odour under the sun than that\nof rotted lilies, so the depths to which \"the lilies of the human\nkind\"--women--will descend is fouler and deeper than the abysses of\nfall of men.\n\nThe hideous wars--international, civil, and _personal_\nconflicts--resulted, as wars ever do, in famine and pestilence.  Only\nin this case, these later horrors had been fearfully aggravated,\nterribly prolonged.\n\nThe picture of the famine is most striking.  The rider of the black\nhorse is shown bearing a pair of scales, typifying the exactitude of\nweight--for single grains counted in these days.  A man's full day's\nwage would purchase only a pint and a half of wheat (a choenix) and\nthat would form but a _scant_ feeding for the day for himself.  But\nthere will then not be wheat enough to go round, and people will hail\nbarley with the rapture of starving souls.\n\nThe tendency of the days in which we write these lines, is an\never-increasing luxury in eating and drinking, and this, too, among all\nclasses.\n\nThat tendency will increase more and more, so that the inhabitants of\nthe famine stricken earth will feel scarcity more than they would\notherwise have done.\n\nThe pestilence followed the famine, until from war, famine, and\npestilence a fourth of the entire population of the earth was swept\naway.\n\nDuring the last twelve months quite a crop of false Christs had arisen.\nEach of these, in his turn, had had a certain following for a brief\nperiod, and each had had an untimely end.\n\nThe only really notable impostor was a man who had suddenly appeared in\nLondon, and who had immediately attracted immense attention.  His\nknowledge of scripture, of the prophecies especially, was marvellous to\nthose whom he addressed.  No one ever attempted to verify his\nquotations, much less his connections of scriptures.  For as Jannes and\nJambres, Pharaoh's two chief Magicians, withstood Moses by demonology\nand jugglery, so, by a hellish jugglery, did \"Conrad the Conqueror\" (as\nthis false Christ styled himself) juggle with the scriptures.\n\nApleon, the Anti-christ, had, apparently, taken no notice of any of the\npetty tribe of mushroom-like false Christs.  That he was well\nacquainted with the sayings and doings of each of them goes without\nsaying, as it was equally so as regarded this more presumptious of the\ncrew \"Conrad the Conqueror.\"  There were many, in London especially,\nwho wondered that Apleon did not appear and refute this man's claims,\nif they had no foundation.\n\nThe evident success of the imposter wrought his own downfall.  Inflated\nwith his success he publicly declared that Apleon would perish beneath\na blast of his (Conrad's) nostrils, and announced that on a certain\nevening at ten o'clock on St. Paul's steps he would publicly re-state\nhis claims, and also defy Apleon.\n\nIn the first year after the Rapture, the whole of the shops and\nwarehouses on both sides of Ludgate hill, with all the purlieus at the\nback of each range of buildings, had been demolished, so that a huge\nopen space, spreading fan shape, (the handle at St. Paul's) swept out,\never-widening, on the left as far as the approach of Blackfriar's\nBridge, on the right through Farringdon Street to the Viaduct Bridge.\n\nWithin this space a million people could not only have congregated, but\nhave heard distinctly, without any effort, the merest whisper spoken\ninto the latest phone discovery the \"Hearit.\"  As, too, every bit of\nthat open space was many yards below the level of St. Paul's steps,\nevery one had a perfect view of all that transpired there.\n\nThe night in question, when the latest and greatest of the false\nChrists, \"Conrad the Conqueror,\" had arranged to defy Apleon, proved to\nbe exceptionally dark.\n\nThree quarters of a million people were gathered in \"The Fan\"--that\nopen space had been christened \"The Fan\" on account of its shape.  It\nwas admirably lit by the new light \"Radiance,\" while a perfect blaze of\nradiance illumined the huge scarlet-covered, scarlet-draped platform\nthat had been erected immediately in front of the steps of the\nCathedral.  (It was all very stagey, very theatrical, but then that was\ncharacteristic of the new age and regime.)\n\nThe false Christ appeared, and was greeted with a curious mixture of\ngroans and hisses, and of cheers.  (A keen judge might have been\npardoned if he had said that the bulk of the cheers were ironical.)\n\nSpeaking in his ordinary voice, the suction plates of the \"Hearit\"\ntransmitted his words to the farthest remove of that \"Fan\" so that all\ncould easily hear.\n\nWith a kind of gentle gravity, at first, he began by saying:\n\n\"Nearly nineteen hundred years ago when I walked this earth, at my\nfirst advent, I warned my disciples--and through them the world--that\nmany false Christs would come, but when it was said 'Lo, here!' or 'Lo,\nthere!' that they were not to go hither and thither, many of these\nfalse Christs have appeared, and have tried to lead the people astray.\nOh foolish people!  How easily were they bewitched!  And how worse than\nfoolish the imposters were.  They might have known that I should not\nhave suffered them to take My Name in vain.\"\n\nFor ten minutes he talked thus, then suddenly changed his tone, and\nraising his right arm--it was long, thin, gaunt, and the wide-flowing\nsleeve of his white seamless robe, fell back showing the lean limb\nalmost to the shoulder--he poured out a defiant speech against Apleon,\nadding \"I have challenged!  I wait for my challenge to be accepted.\"\n\nA sudden, awesome silence fell upon all the gathered, listening\nthousands.  They had not long to wait, for in that same instant a\nfierce crimson light shone in the dark heavens above them, and looking\nup they saw a fiery ruby scroll like flame rushing downwards through\nthe sky.\n\nAn instant later the fiery scroll resolved itself into the characters\nof the \"Covenant Sign\" (\"The Mark of the Beast.\")  With a swoop, like\nthat of some crimson Albatross, the thing descended until it seemed\nalmost to touch the platform where the challenger \"Conrad\" stood.\nThen, to the amaze and delight of the vast audience in \"The Fan,\" out\nfrom convolutions of the central sign of the \"Mark,\" Apleon stepped on\nto the platform.\n\nHis aerial chair (on this occasion made in the form of his own \"number\nand sign\") rose swiftly again and hovered mid-air.\n\nThe false Christ was as white of face as his robe.  He visibly cowered\nand shrank before the coming of the giant figure of the World's\nDictator, as the latter strode in three long strides across the\nplatform.\n\nFor one brief second, amid the hush and silence of the absolute awe\nthat rested on the mighty audience, challenger and challenged stood\nfacing each other.  Then Apleon's voice was heard, as with a sweep of\nhis hand he uttered the one word:\n\n\"PERISH, thou Fool!\"\n\nAs his hand swept the air in the direction of the false Prophet, a wide\nsheet of flame leaped out of space, enveloped the white-robed figure,\nand it was instantly consumed.  As at the burning of the sacrificial\nlamb at the dedication of the temple at Jerusalem, so now, the flame\nthat had consumed the challenging imposter floated a yard or two over\nthe spot where he had stood, and slowly resolved itself into \"The Sign\nof the Covenant\" (\"Mark of the Beast,\") in pure ruby flame.\n\n\"_He doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven\non the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the\nearth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do._\"\n\nApleon turned towards the mighty gathering, and said triumphantly: \"So\nperish all impostors!\"\n\nA thunder of cheers rose from three quarters of a million throats!\nInstantly followed by the chorus of the Apleon ode!\n\n  \"Hail!  Hail!  Hail Man of Men!\n  World's Deliverer!\n      APLEON!\"\n\n\nLike a living thing of writhing flames, the brilliant car swept\ndownwards from the sky, where it had waited.  Almost, it seemed to skim\nthe scarlet floor of the platform and to scoop up its owner, for none\nsaw Apleon lift a foot to step into it, yet the next moment he was\nsoaring away seated within the upper convolution of the serpent sign.\n\nFor hours, thousands of the people remained within the sweep of the\ngreat \"Fan,\" talking of all that had occurred, and more absolutely\nconvinced than ever that Apleon was God--_their_ God.\n\nThrice during the next hour after Apleon's departure, three separate\nfaithful souls--one of the three a woman--raised a testimony against\nthe Man of Sin.  But each one met with death within thirty seconds of\ntheir first utterance.\n\n\"_And white robes were given unto everyone of them; and it was said\nunto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their\nfellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they\nwere, should be fulfilled._\"\n\nThere were, scattered over all the earth, many thousands of believers\nin God, praying \"Thy kingdom come.\"  Many of these had turned to God\nduring the first days of the shock of realization of \"things as they\ntruly were,\" when the \"Church\" had been translated to the heavenlies.\n\nThe number of these believers had been added to considerably, during\nthe awful times of war, pestilence and famine, for these horrors (so\nplainly predicted in the word of God) had taught them to read their\nBibles with new eyes, and to receive its truths and obey them.  Of\nthese believers, many had been, and many, many more were yet to be\n\"_slain on account of the Word of God, and on account of the testimony\nwhich they held fast_.\n\nThe whole of the three-and-a-half years had been rife with growing\nhorrors, with licentiousness, and every evil possible to the\nunregenerate mind, and heart, and life, when full license is given to\nthem.\n\nThe license and indulgence permitted--even arranged for, in the first\ninstance--by the apostate church with a view to the more perfect\nenslavement of the world's worshippers, had brought forth a full\nharvest of evil.  The effect of license is disorder, and presently\nanarchy.  For three-years-and-a-half the apostate church had grown in\nassumption and in all abominations, and the effects of the license\npermitted, and _fearfully abused_, had produced a condition of things\nwhich became such an intolerable burden, that the time had become ripe\nfor the authority in all this, to be destroyed.\n\nThe apostate church was the cause and the authority for all the excess\nof evil of the times, hence the ten-kingdomed confederacy which had at\nfirst buttressed the impious system, now, by united action, destroyed\nit.  \"_And the ten horns which thou sawest, and the Beast, these shall\nhate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat\nher flesh, and shall BURN HER UTTERLY WITH FIRE.  For God did put in\ntheir hearts to do His mind, AND TO COME TO ONE MIND, and to give their\nKingdom unto the Beast, until the words of God shall be accomplished._\"\n(Rev. 17:16-17)\n\n\"Man is a religious animal!\"  And Lucien Apleon, endowed with special\nwisdom of his father and Master--the Devil--recognized this necessity\nfor a religion from the outset of his career.\n\nThe Devil has always recognized religion, encouraged it, and has even\ninstigated it in a hundred forms, during the last 6,000 years.  Only\nevery effort of his Satanic power and force has been directed towards\nthe luring of the religious soul _away from God_.  The Devil is a\nRitualist!  He loves to entangle souls in a ritual, and the more\nsensuous the ritual, the better he is pleased, because such\nsensuousness and ritualism ministers to the \"flesh,\" and while men and\nwomen's religion is fleshly, it cannot be spiritual.  And the FATHER\nseeketh spiritual worshippers, \"for they that worship Him, must worship\nHim in Spirit and in Truth.\"  Then, too, Satan knows that all\nreligiousness that is of the \"flesh,\" tends to make its devotees\nanxious for the development of a good-self within them, while true,\nspiritual life _in Christ_, leads to the continual consciousness that\n\"_in me, that is IN MY FLESH, dwelleth no good thing_.\"\n\nLucien Apleon encouraged religion, but not the religion of the Lord\nJesus Christ--for he, Apleon was The _Anti_-Christ.  It was he, with\nhis emissaries, taught and guided by Satan, the Arch-enemy of God, and\nof His Christ, that had subtlety, secretly energized the\nworld-religion, that followed the taking away of the church.  That\nworld-wide system had been an amalgamation of all the then existing\nfalse systems of religion.  With the taking away of the church every\ntype of license had been gradually permitted to the worshippers in the\nchurches of this infernal system, until, at last, as we have seen, the\ngovernments had been compelled to abolish what at first they had helped\nto establish--for license had bred such a character and temper in the\npeoples that it became a menace to all order.\n\nAll this was part of Satan's organized plan, for, when the moment of\nthe crushing out of this licentious, abominable religious system\narrived, his plans, as regarded Lucien Apleon, The Anti-christ, were so\nperfected, by the ripeness of the world for the Anti-christ rule, that\nall else seemed plain sailing.\n\nThe poor, duped world knew Apleon only as the great SUPER-MAN, \"long\nlooked-for, come at last,\" the World's Deliverer, who was presently to\nbe universally acclaimed as the World's Dictator.\n\nThe world had long been familiar with the system of private chaplains\nattached to great men's households.  It was familiar knowledge to them\nthat Dan, the Free-booter, (in the days of \"The Judges\") must needs\nhave a renegade, runaway Levite for a priest, his salary thirty\nshillings a year, a suit of clothes and his victuals (as much as a\nrenegade was worth).  Absalom could do little, in his revolt, without\nthe religious brand, so must needs have Ahithophel.  And down to their\nown times, the World, at the period of Apleon's coming, was familiar\nwith private chaplains.\n\nApleon's chaplain, a swarthy-skinned Jew (to all outward appearance,)\nwas undoubtedly like Apleon himself, a Satanic resurrection, or if not\na resurrection, certainly energized by the same infernal power.  The\nHoly Ghost calls this man \"The False Prophet.\"  He exercised all the\nauthority of Anti-christ, \"_in his presence_,\" as well as in his\nabsence.  _Eight_ times the emphatic word \"_he causeth_\" is written of\nhim, by the Holy Spirit, and a more hideous, lying, extraordinarily\nwicked catalogue of deeds is no where else to be found in the world's\nhistory:\n\n\"_He causeth the earth, and those that dwell in it_,\" (does that refer\nto the foul spirits who dwell in that awful under-world, from which we\nbelieve the Anti-Christ, as Judas re-incarnated came, or does it refer\nonly to dwellers on the earth?  It may well mean _both_!)--\"_To worship\nthe first beast_.\"\n\nAs well as his co-associate, Apleon--The Anti-christ, the false Prophet\nnot only claimed the power to work miracles, but he _did_ work them,\nshowing a baleful but powerful supernatural control over the forces of\nnature.  \"_And he doeth great miracles . . .  And he deceiveth those\nthat dwell ON the earth by reason of the signs which it was given him\nto work in the presence of the Beast_.\"  In Egypt, three thousand four\nhundred or more years ago, it was demonstrated by Jannes and Jambres\nthat there is a supernaturalism of the Devil, as well as of God,\n_against_, as well as _for_ God.\n\nBoth Anti-christ and his subaltern, the false prophet, dealt largely in\nthe miracle of fire.  The _two witnesses_, who had testified that they\nhad come from God, had consumed their persecutors, again and again by\nfire, and the Hell-born imposters felt the necessity of showing that\nthey, too, could command fire.\n\nUtterly destroyed by the ten kings, the world was without an organized\nreligion, and was ready for the fouler, fuller rule of Satan--the\nworship of Anti-christ, and his image.\n\nAs God had ever had a Trinity of personality and power in Himself, so\nSatan in his damnable, deceivable counterfeiting has now _his_ trinity.\nHimself (Satan) the embodiment of evil, the suggester, creator,\nenergizer, he makes a _mock_ Christ--Apleon, the Anti-christ, answers\nto the second Person of the divine Trinity.  While Apleon's chaplain,\nthe false prophet, answers to the third person of the divine Trinity.\n\nEnergized by Satan, even as Anti-christ himself is, the false Prophet\nbecomes a mighty force among the world's peoples, persuading them that\nApleon really is God, and worthy of worship.  The whole world has seen\nand heard of the marvellous miracles of \"The Prophet,\" as he is called.\n\nThe infatuation of all the world for the Man of Sin, Lucien Apleon, was\nalmost absolute and complete.  He ruled the world, every department of\nit--social, political, commercial, religious.  He blasphemed God.  He\nblasphemed the translated Church that occupied the Heavenlies with her\nLord.\n\nDay by day, week by week, month by month he grew bolder, more impious,\nmore cruel, more persecuting to the saints that were then living to God.\n\nAnd through all this time Enoch and Elijah continued their \"witness\"\nfor their Lord.  As judgment prophets, they had been sent in this age\nof judgment, to resist the awful, the gigantic blasphemies of\nAnti-christ, and to give to the poor, vain, deluded world its last\nawful warning.  For bad as had been the apostate Church, so recently\ndestroyed, the worship of Anti-christ himself, would be infamously more\nimpious.\n\nThe world hated them, yet _feared_ the two witnesses.  More than once\nwhen blatant blasphemers, agents of Apleon, had openly opposed them,\nand cursed them and their witnessing, these witnesses of Jesus Christ,\n\"_the faithful and true witness_,\" had sent forth fire from themselves\nand consumed their enemies.  And the world had learned to fear them,\nthough they ignored their warnings.\n\nMany times, too, they had wrought fearful, havoc-making miracles, so\nthat as it was with the Egyptians so, the days of Moses, so it came to\nbe with all the peoples who witnessed the miracles of these prophets,\nEnoch and Elijah, for they shut the Heaven, in many places, \"that rain\nshould not fall during the days of their prophesying.\"  They turned the\nwaters into blood, and \"smote the earth with every plague as often as\nthey willed.\"  Until the people hated, and _feared_ them, yet, all the\ntime, they hardened themselves against God, and the testimony of the\ntwo prophets, as Pharaoh hardened himself against God.\n\nThe multitudes learned that though they were absolutely powerless to\nhurt the TWO WITNESSES themselves, yet, given that THE WITNESSES were\nnot present the mob found that they could work their will upon their\nfollowers--and they did, continually.\n\nIt was the morning before the great event that had been announced, the\nnature of the coming event was not known, though a hundred speculations\nwere rife.  The city was astir early, for the night had been too sultry\nfor much sleeping, and everyone was more or less excited, as to what\nwould be the great event which the next thirty hours--more or less--was\nto bring.  As the sun mounted higher and higher the whole of the\ndistricts around the city belched forth their tens of thousands of\ncurious people of every nationality, their goal the city itself.\n\nSuddenly--the suddenness was like some magical effect--the two\nworst-hated beings in all the world, appeared on a mound of marble\nblocks, within a hundred yards of and _out_side the Jaffa Gate.\n\nThey were God's two gracious, faithful WITNESSES.  The multitudes began\nto converge towards the spot where they had suddenly appeared.  (It was\na curious fact, however much people might hate the testimony of the TWO\nWITNESSES they seemed to have no power to pass on, when once the men of\nGod began to preach.)\n\n\"Men and brethren of every clime,\" rang out the voice of Enoch.  \"Once\nagain, in the name of Jehovah--Jesus, we lift our voices to warn you of\nthe shortness of the time left unto you in which to repent, and to turn\nunto God.\n\n\"Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die? as die you certainly will under\nthe breath of the Christ, when He presently shall come--for He shall\n'slay with the breath of His mouth.'\n\n\"We preach not the gospel of the grace of God which, aforetime, before\n'The Rapture,' was preached, that gospel which was good news of glad\ntidings to all sinners.  That gospel told how He had lived on earth for\nover thirty-years--God inhabiting a human body, for God was in Christ\nreconciling the world unto Himself--it told how He died a death of\nshame and agony, a substitute for sinners, so that whosoever should\nbelieve on Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.  And as\nmany as believed on Him gave He power to become the sons of God.\n\n\"It told of His coming again to receive all those sons of God, dead or\nliving, unto Himself in the Heavenlies.  Less than four years ago He\ncame.  Thousands who knew the truth, but had not accepted it, before He\ncame, did so after the RAPTURE of the saints, and thousands of those\nhave already sealed, and many more thousands will yet, seal their faith\nwith their blood.\n\n\"The days of our testimony draws shorter now, we have few more\nopportunities of warning you, and of witnessing to our God.  But here,\nonce more, this morning, we preach unto you the gospel of the Kingdom.\nThe gospel of the coming Kingdom of Christ.\n\n\"'For He shall reign whose right it is, and of His kingdom of peace,\nand joy, and love there shall be no end.'  For nearly two thousand\nyears men have prayed 'Thy kingdom come.'  It is coming soon, but\nbefore He begins His reign, He shall put down all enemies under His\nfeet.  None will be able to hide from Him for His eyes will be as a\nflame of fire.\n\n\"Those who will _now_ seek Him, accept Him as their king, whether He\ncomes in their life-time, or whether they lay down their lives as\nfaithful witnesses to His coming, all such we proclaim, shall live the\nglorious life which He has for such.\"\n\nThe crowd numbered a hundred thousand now, and the majority of them\nkept up a sullen murmur against the preaching.\n\nA native prince of a notable eastern realm, plucked a javelin-type of\nweapon from his cumberband and hurled it full into the face of the\npreacher.  It never reached its mark, but, boomerang like, it returned\nto the thrower and shattered and entered his right temple.\n\nBut for the density of the crowd, the eastern would have dropped to the\nearth like a stone--for he was dead.\n\nA way was made for a few to drag the body clear of the mob, then, once\nclear, those who dragged it thence returned to the crowd.  \"Without\nnatural affection,\"--a trait of the Times--had degenerated into\n\"without common humanity.\"\n\nFor half-an-hour longer THE TWO WITNESSES preached, warned, pleaded\nwith the multitude.  Then they stepped from the pile of marble blocks,\nand passed quietly away.\n\nAs was customary after every such session of testimony, the crowd split\nup into many groups and discussed the whole situation.\n\nOn this occasion some five hundred men and women, mostly Jews, who had\nreceived the testimony,[1] were moving off in a body, when an unlocked\nfor incident occurred.\n\nThrough all the witnessing of God's two prophets, there had stood among\nthe listening crowd, a tall, swarthy-faced man, richly attired, a Jew\nby race, (that was evident from the marked Hebrew lines of his face).\nThe expression of his face, during the WITNESSING, had alternated\nbetween mocking and rage.  Now his eyes followed the departing band of\nmen and women who were loyal to the Gospel of the Kingdom.\n\nWith a scornful, devilish laugh, he pointed to the departing people, as\nhe cried: \"If we cannot kill the spawn that preaches, why not kill the\nhatched-out ones?\"\n\nThe crowd was ripe for anything.  With a roar, like unto Hell itself,\nthey raced after the godly band and in a moment surrounded them,\nbrandishing the long murderous knives of the east, and revolvers of the\nwest.\n\nThe foul work of wiping out the whole band of faithful ones began.\nEvery shot went home, every knife found a faithful heart.  The twin\nlusts of hate and of religious fanaticism burned in the breasts of the\nmob.  It was a carnival of cruelty and blood.  Everyone wanted to see\nit.  Other thousands hearing the sound of the shots, poured through the\ngates of the city.  Everyone wanted a sight of the _entertainment_--for\nthis the slaying was regarded, as, of old-time, Rome entertained\nherself by filling the eighty thousand seats of the great theatre, to\nsee the Christians thrown to the lions.\n\nThere was not a coign of vantage to which the mob did not climb.  They\nclimbed upon the roofs, the balconies, held themselves perilously upon\nthe sloping verandas, they stood upon window-sills, and hung from\nelectric light pillars, and tram-line standards.  They shouted, and\nsang, and urged upon the slayers to mutilate as well as kill \"the\ncarrion.\"\n\nThen, suddenly, above all the din, and above even the crack of\nrevolvers, the great song of Apleon, that foul ode of idolatrous\nlaudation, set to most wonderful music, rang out from thousands of\nexcited throats.  The song was Hell-born, and hellishly sung.\n\nWhen, a moment later the whole mob had trampled upon the slain\nbelievers--wantonly, heedlessly trod upon them,--in their passage\ntowards the city, the swarthy Jew who had incited the crowd to their\ndeed of blood, lit a cigarette, and crossed to where his aerial-chair\nwaited him.  He stepped into the upholstered seat, and turned his head\nto watch the mob, then with that evil laugh of his, he muttered: \"Men\nare but sheep after all, and will follow any bell-wether!\"\n\nTo his waiting driver, he said: \"Esdraelon.\"  The next moment the chair\nrose in the air, and like some wondrous bird soared away, northwards.\n\nThe swarthy Jew was Apleon's Chaplain, the false prophet.\n\nJerusalem was enormously crowded.  Thousands upon thousands of people\nhad come up from Babylon, as well as from every part of the world.  The\nnews had been flashed all over the earth, that some world-important\nevent in connection with the Emperor-Dictator, would take place during\nthis last week of the first three-and-a-half years of the \"Great\nCovenant.\"\n\nAt the time of the offering of the Morning Lamb, just as the course of\nofficiating priests were preparing for the slaughter of the lamb,\nApleon's resident viceroy, entered the Temple enclosure, followed by a\nmilitary detachment, and, accompanied by Apleon's chaplain, he whom God\nthe Holy Ghost has called the false Prophet.  The latter ordered the\npriest in charge of the \"Course,\" to cease the offering, and to the\namazed protest of the priest, he laughed scornfully, vouchsafing no\nother explanation than that it was his and the Emperor's command, that\n_all_ Jewish worship-ritual should cease.\n\nThe priests could do no other than obey the command, enforced, as it\nwas, by the presence of the Viceroy, _and the military force_.\n\nThe High-Priest lived a mile away from the Temple.  One of the minor\nofficials went off to apprise him of this strange new order.\n\nAs the man made his way down the marble road to the city level, he met\na ponderous motor-driven trolley of great length--the thing was\nevidently bound for the Temple.  Two hundred workmen followed behind\nthe trolley, and the Temple-messenger noticed that on the trolley,\nlying beside the huge coffin-like packing-case that formed its chief\nburden, were a number of hoisting and hauling tackles, with a pile of\nhandspikes, jacks, etc.\n\nIt was an hour before the messenger returned, the High-Priest\naccompanying him.  By that time wonders--infernal wonders--had been\nwrought.\n\nFrom the packing case there had been taken a gigantic image of Lucien\nApleon, and it had been reared upon a plinth of dark green marble, upon\nthe tessellated platform _within_ the Temple.\n\nThe statue was of gold, and upon the green marble plinth was engraved:\n\"I AM THAT I AM!\"\n\nIn amazed, frightened horror, the High-Priest gazed for one moment upon\nthe idolatrous abomination, then, as his blood boiled with a holy,\nrighteous indignation, he thundered forth the words:\n\n\"Thou shalt have no other God before me.\n\n\"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, . . . .  Thou shalt\nnot bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am\na jealous God--.\"\n\n\"Take that foul, idolatrous thing hence!\" he cried, with passionate\nwarmth.  His eyes were fixed upon Apleon's chaplain, (the false\nProphet) whose mocking smile, as he stood by the gang of workmen,\nangered him beyond measure.\n\nNot a man moved at the order of the High-Priest, and he thundered forth\nhis command again:\n\n\"Take that abomination down, and hence, or I will call upon Jehovah to\nsend His judgment fire down and consume you all, and the idol as well.\"\n\nWith a blasphemous oath, the false Prophet, spat in the forehead of the\nfulminating Priest, and hissed:\n\n\"Silence, fool, idiot, driveller!\"\n\nAs the foul spittle touched the face of the Priest, he fell prone upon\nhis back on the pavement of the Temple.  A dead hush fell upon everyone\npresent, for as they gazed upon the face of the dead Priest they saw\nthat the whole forehead became filled with the \"Mark of the Beast.\"\n\nThe silence of this awesome hush was suddenly, startlingly broken by a\npeal of mocking laughter.  It came from Lucien Apleon's deputy, the\nfalse Prophet.\n\nThen, more startling still, the lips of the golden image parted, and in\ndeep, solemn tones the idol cried:\n\n\"So perish all who shall dare to oppose the Emperor Lucien's will.\"\n\nThis was no trick.  It was not a mechanical device within the image.\nIt was not a clever piece of ventriloquism.  Of this we are\nassured--the image actually spoke.  God's word cannot lie, and John,\nunder the command of God, wrote it down: \"_It was given the false\nProphet to give spirit to the image of the Beast, that the image of the\nBeast should even speak_.\"\n\n\"_To give SPIRIT to the image_!\"  What does that mean?  Does it mean\nthat life was given to it, temporarily?  Who shall say?  Certainly it\n_spoke_!\n\nUnseen, unnoticed, at the very moment that the High-Priest fell, slain\nby the false Prophet, there had entered the Temple, Cohen, who had been\nHigh-Priest for the _first_ year of this new Temple's history.\n\nHe slipped away as the image uttered its speech.  He met many of the\npriests of other of the Courses, as they were approaching the Temple,\nalso numbers of the devout Jews of the city and its suburbs, and many\nfrom other parts of the world, who had been specially drawn hither by\nthe news that had been flashed world-wide, as to some great event about\nto happen in Jerusalem.\n\n\"Stay!\" he cried.  His looks told of something serious, and in an\ninstant he was the centre of an eager, anxious, enquiring crowd of Jews.\n\n\"Jehovah help us!\" he went on.  \"For those who would be true to Him\nnow, must be prepared for flight or for death.  Apleon, is a traitor!\n'_He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him; he\nhath broken his covenant._'  Psalm lv. 20.  '_He confirmed a covenant\nwith us for seven years_.'  Daniel ix. 27.  '_The words of his mouth\nwere smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were\nsofter than oil, yet were drawn swords_.'  Psalm lv. 21.\"\n\nCohen, even while he had been speaking had led the crowding Jews away\nfrom that main road, and now, in a _cul-de-sac_, he was continuing his\nwords.\n\n\"Blind!  Blind! that we were, all of us, I, especially, for my Gentile\nfriend, the editor of 'The Courier'--London daily paper--warned me.  He\ntold me of the meaning of our own prophet Daniel's words, '_In the\nmidst of the week_ (the seven years of the covenant we made with that\napostate) _he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease_.'\n\n\"This he has done this morning.  The priests were stopped in their\npreparations for the morning sacrifice.\n\n\"'_And,_' said our father, Daniel, '_for the over-spreading of\nabominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation_.'\nDaniel ix. 27.\n\n\"Brethren, of the House of Israel, the Lord our God is one God.  I am\nno Mehushmad, but in common with many of our rabbis, I have read the\nGentile New Testament, and there, in the words of the Nazarene Prophet,\n(Matt. xxiv. 15, 16.) He prophesied exactly what has come to pass this\nmorning in our beautiful Temple, for he said:\n\n\"'_When ye_ (that is we of the House of Israel) _therefore, shall see\nthe abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand\nin the holy place_ (of the Temple)--_whoso readeth, let him\nunderstand:--then let them which be in Judaea flee into the\nmountains . . . and pray ye that your flight be not on the sabbath day.\nFor then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the\nbeginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be_.'\n\n\"Jehovah help us, brethren!  This morning has convinced me that these\ntimes are upon us.  What _this_ day will bring none but Jehovah can\ntell!  My last word to you, my advice to you all, is, flee this city,\nflee the neighbourhood.  For weeks I have had it borne in upon my soul,\nthat the man we have covenanted with, was working some deep, subtle,\nhellish scheme.  Now he hath shown his hand, there are but three\ncourses open to us, _idolatry_--worshipping that idol set up in our\nholy place, yonder; _flight_; or _death_.\"\n\nEven as Cohen harangued his crowd of priests and Jews, Apleon rode up\nthe white marble road to the Temple.  The Hebrew crowd was quite hidden\nfrom any observation from that main road.  It was well for them,\ndoubtless, that it was so.\n\nA moment or two after Apleon and the mighty throng which followed him\nhad passed, the crowd of Jews left the _cul-de-sac_, and silently,\nanxiously dispersed in various directions.\n\nCohen found himself walking with the man who had been Hight-priest last\nyear.  Together they conversed in low, serious, guarded tones, until\nthey suddenly discovered themselves close up to a mighty throng\ngathered about the now well-known witnesses, Enoch and Elijah.\n\nThe two priests paused to listen to the witnesses' denunciations of\nApleon, whom they designated \"The Beast.\"--\"The Anti-christ.\"  Both men\nhad listened often before to these prophets of God, and both had often\nbeen well-nigh convinced of the truth of the testimony of the two\nwitnesses.\n\n\"It is said,\" whispered Cohen, to his fellow-priest, \"that these two\nmen are the two prophets of the Most High God, Enoch and Elijah--those\ntwo of God's servants who never passed through death.\"\n\n\"The three and a half years of their witnessing,\" replied the second\npriest, \"have been crowded with incident, miracle, and much that has\nbeen supernatural.  They say that no man has seen them eat.  That, like\nElijah, when upon earth, they too have been super-naturally fed.  Then,\ntoo, nothing has been able to harm them.  Apleon (the priest's voice\nwas lowered to the merest whisper) has directed his agents to war\nagainst them over and over again.  They have shot at them, hurled\nvitrol upon them, and tried to seize them, to bind them, but as they\nhave themselves testified again and again, nothing can harm them _until\nthey have finished their testimony_.\"\n\nCohen bent closer to his fellow-priest, as he whispered: \"The book of\nRevelation, in the Gentile New Testament, declares that '_they shall\nprophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sack-cloth.\nAnd when they have completed their testimony, the Beast that cometh up\nout of the abyss_ (I believe that is Apleon) _shall make war with them,\nand overcome them, and kill them_.'\"\n\n\"Now if this come to pass, then they will die to-day, for it is a\nthousand two hundred and sixty days, this very evening, since they\nbegan their preaching, and----.  But, listen, to what the one of them\nis saying.\"\n\nThe voice of Enoch rang out as it had done five thousand years before,\nwhen he had prophesied, saying, \"_Behold! the Lord cometh with ten\nthousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all; and to convince\nall that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they\nhave ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly\nsinners have spoken against Him--_.\"\n\nBut now the message of the prophet had in it testimony as well as\nwarning:\n\n\"Have we not warned you for three years and a half, that the man,\nApleon, whom you have all trusted in, was but the tool of his father,\nthe Devil?  Have we not told you often that he worked upon your deluded\nminds and imaginations for one purpose only, to keep you from 'The God\nof Salvation,' and that, presently, he would set up his own image to be\nworshipped in that gilded thing of unbelief, upon that mount, yonder?\"\n\nA peal of derisive, mocking laughter greeted this statement.\n\nThe voice of the prophet cut the laughter, with its supernatural\nincisiveness, so that it rose clear and distinct above the laughter:\n\n\"And now all that we prophesied has come to pass.  The image of Apleon\n(the abomination of desolation) spoken of by Daniel the prophet, has\nthis morning been set up in the Temple over there.  '_And that Man of\nSin . . . opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God,\nor that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the Temple of\nGod, showing himself that he is God_.'  2 Thess. ii. 4.\n\n\"Upon the pedestal of his image, that was reared this morning, he has\ncaused to be engraved the very name of our Jehovah God--'I AM THAT I\nAM!' as he supposes it to be, because it is thus translated in the\nBibles of the world.  There is no sense in that way of putting it, as\nthere is no sense, nothing but vanity and coming failure and fall, in\nthat 'Man of Sin' himself.  But he has chosen to ape Jehovah-God by\nusing '_I am, that I am!_' instead of the true translation which has\nevidently been hidden from him and which is: 'I AM HE WHO AM FOR EVER!\"\n\n\"_He is Anti-christ, that denieth the Father and the Son_.  1 John ii.\n22.  The Scriptures have been issued by millions, every soul of you\nhere has had an opportunity of knowing the things whereof we again\ntestify.  You have heard, or read, or both, (or you could have done if\nyou would) that he, the Man of Sin, '_would cause an image of himself\nto be made, that he would give life to it, and that the image should\nspeak_' (Rev. xiii. 14, 15).  All this has happened this morning, and\nall else will happen that is prophesied.  Therefore we cry:\n\n\"_Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?  Why should ye be stricken any\nmore?  Ye will revolt more and more.  From the sole of the foot even\nunto the head there is no soundness in you, but wounds and bruises and\nputrefying sores: Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your\ndoings from before God's eyes; cease to do evil.  Turn ye, turn ye, for\nwhy will ye die?_\"\n\nStrangely affected by the power and earnestness of this witness of God,\nCohen and his fellow-priest turned reluctantly away.  In the heart of\neach of them was the determination to be clear of the Jerusalem\nneighbourhood that very forenoon, if possible.  In fact before one\no'clock had struck, that mid-day, there had taken place a really\nremarkable exodus from the city and its neighbourhood.  Of these, many\nwere Jews, in whose composition there was deeply engraved a deep-seated\nantagonism to all idolatry.\n\nThen, too, there were many \"Kingdom believers\" (by what other name can\nwe call them, since, having missed Salvation by the \"Gospel of Grace,\"\nthey now served God, while waiting for Christ's coming to set up His\nkingdom.) Many of these fled the city and its neighbourhood, for they\ncounted not their lives dear when it came to a case of blasphemy and\nidolatry.  Yet, because the love of life is inherent with the race, and\nbecause, too, these \"Kingdom believers,\" learned to bring others to\nGod, before the final judgments came, and knowing that it was written\n\"that as many as will not worship the image of the Beast shall be\nkilled,\" they fled Jerusalem.\n\n\n\n[1] The Author, in common with every other public speaker, and writer,\non these themes, has been so often asked the question, \"What of my\nloved ones who are out of Christ, how will they fare when we are gone,\nand the Church is gone?\"  Let me say that the more I study the\nScriptures of the times of which this volume speaks, the more I am\nconvinced that of the many who are brought to accept Christ (in the\nGospel of His coming to reign, \"the Gospel of the Kingdom,\") through\nthe sudden translation of the Church, even though they be ill-taught,\nperhaps only half-hearted, they will, under the preaching of the TWO\nWITNESSES, be wholly brought into fellowship with Christ, and will,\nthemselves in turn, become faithful witnesses to the TRUTH.  There is\nnothing in Scripture to warrant the belief that the preaching of the\nTWO WITNESSES will be confined to Jerusalem, and it is surely\nreasonable to suppose that London, Edinburgh, New York, Chicago,\nBerlin, and all other chief cities, will hear their voices in witness\nand warning.  They will doubtless have thousands of converts, Jew and\nGentile alike, or where will the great multitude whom John saw, come\nfrom.  But all those left behind when Christ comes, who may be won to\nHim afterwards, will not only miss the glories of _the Heavenlies_ with\nChrist, but will suffer persecution, and many of them death at the\nhands of Anti-christ and his emissaries.  (Author.)\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nDEATH OF THE \"TWO WITNESSES.\"\n\nApleon had been on the Temple mount for two hours.  Part of that time\nhe had been in the Temple itself, in and out of which there passed\ncontinually, streams of people, all curious to see the wonderful image\nof Apleon, the image that had spoken, and that had slain \"unbelievers.\"\n\nApleon had watched the ever-moving crowds of dupes, and noticed how\nevery one of them bowed, or prostrated themselves before his image.  He\nnoticed, too, whenever his own presence had been realized, that the\nworshippers, while bowing _before_ the image faced him, Apleon, so that\nthey really gave _him_ the worship.\n\nIn spite of all that Romanists, and others of a similar cult, may say,\nthe _worship_ of an image or of a statue, means the worship of the\nperson imaged or sculptured--this is the very essence of all\nimage-worship.  The great Chrysostom, in one of his records of his\ntime, says:\n\n\"_When the images of the Emperor are sent down and brought into a city,\nits rulers and multitude go out to meet them with carefulness and\nreverence, not honouring the tablet or the representation moulded in\nwax, but the standing of the Emperor._\"\n\nAthanasius wrote:\n\n\"_He who worshippeth the image, in it worshippeth the emperor; for the\nimage is his form and likeness._\"\n\nAnd the worship, in the Jerusalem Temple, of the _image_ of Apleon,\n(\"The Beast\") was the worship of the man himself.\n\nThere is a very curious word in Habakkuk ii. 9, \"_Woe to him that saith\nto the wood, 'Awake!' to the dumb stone, \"Arise, it shall teach._\"\nApleon, the Anti-christ actually qualifies himself for that \"woe\" of\nGod's.\n\nA notice had been promulgated that in the \"Broadway\"--the wide, open\nsquare from which the great marble road to the Temple opened\nout,--throughout the whole day, the new \"Covenant\" brands would be\naffixed.\n\nThe \"Covenant\" sign, had for three years and a half been mostly worn\n(as we have seen) in the form of a ring on the right hand, or as a\npendant frontlet upon the forehead.  Some few million enthusiasts, it\nis true, had worn it _branded_ on the flesh of the forehead, but this\nhad not been universal.\n\nNow it had been decreed by Apleon, and endorsed by his second, the\nfalse Prophet, that the wearing of a _detatchable_ \"Sign,\" be no longer\npermissable, that _all must be branded--or die_.\n\nBrands, in several sizes, had been prepared, which, when pressed\nagainst the forehead, and worked by a spring-lever, left the damnable\nmark upon the skin in deep, rich purple characters.  The surface of the\nbranding instrument was peculiarly soft and yielding, so that when, by\nthe automatic inking, the mark was made, there was never an imperfect\nsign, but every character was truly formed.  The ink used, claimed to\nbe absolutely indelible, and those who had tried it, more than two\nyears before, had found no break in any single line or curve if either\nof the characters.\n\nFor two hours, a hundred branders had been at work at their truly\nhellish task, and if the _donning_ of the badges, three and a half\nyears before had been in a veritable _holiday_ spirit, the acceptance\nof the brand, now, was with a blend of rapturous joy, and of actual\nworship.\n\nWith the infernal cunning which has ever characterized Satan's efforts\nto thwart God and His Christ, he has counterfeited every rite, every\nsacrament of Christ's Church.  Hence Apleon, Satan's tool, is very keen\nupon this matter of a baptismal sign.  He makes a sacrament of it (i.\ne. an oath or covenant of fidelity.)  To show their allegiance to his\ninfernal lordship, Anti-christ's subjects must now wear his brand so\nthat it can never be erased or removed, and his chaplain (\"The False\nProphet\") \"_causeth all, the small and the great, and the rich and the\npoor, and the free and the bond, to receive_\"--literal translation--\"_a\nstamp or brand, on their right hand, or on their forehead_.\"\n\nThe preaching of the cross, of Jesus Christ as the World's Redeemer,\nthe putting away of sin, and the gift of eternal life by faith in God's\nword of grace, the baptism into the name of Christ, had, for several\ndecades, been growingly scouted as \"foolishness.\"  \"An obsolete\ndoctrine,\" all that was voted.  \"Men are far too intelligent to be\nbound by such a Bible creed as that.  New times need new doctrines,\"\netc., etc.\n\nThe twenty years immediately preceding the manifestation of the \"Man of\nSin,\" had been characterized by such utterances, and many others\ninfinitely more impious, blasphemous, and senseless.  \"_But after the\nworld by its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through\nthe foolishness of the thing preached, to save them that believe_ . . .\nBecause THE FOOLISHNESS OF GOD is WISER THAN MEN.\"  But when\nAnti-christ shall promulgate his devil-doctrines, senseless,\nidolatrous, humiliating, the bulk of men of every grade and class, will\nsuffer themselves to be branded like cattle in a round-up.  Believing\n\"the lie,\" deluded by that universal lie, they will have no choice,\nsave to be branded, or to die.  And to yield themselves to the infernal\nbrand will mean to be cut off for ever from God.\n\n\"_If any man worship the Beast and his image, and receive his mark in\nhis forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the\nwrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His\nindignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the\npresence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the\nsmoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they have no\nrest day or night, who worship the Beast and his image_, AND WHOSOEVER\nRECEIVETH THE MARK OF HIS NAME.\" (Rev. xiv. 9-11.)\n\nSimultaneous with the beginning of the branding, the two witnesses had\ntaken up a position close by the branders, and had persistently\nwitnessed to the near coming of the Lord in judgment upon those who\nwore the Mark of the Beast, while, at the same time, they denounced\nApleon as the Anti-christ.\n\nOver and over again during their testimony, attempts had been made to\nsilence them, every conceivable death-attack had been made upon\nthem--but nothing harmed them.  No weapon formed against them could\nprosper, until their \"witness\" was completed.  And every one who had\nassisted in any form, in attacking them, had died in the act.\n\nNow, Apleon, attended by the ten kings, who had been summoned to\nJerusalem, rode down from the Temple.  At the branding station, the ten\nkings dismounted, and each received the foul mark on the forehead.\n\nAs the last of them received the brand, a startled wondering cry burst\nfrom some of the multitude who thronged \"The Broadway,\" and following\nthe many pointing fingers of the startled ones, every one saw how that\npurple, lambent flames played about Apleon's forehead in the form of\nthe \"Covenant\" sign.\n\n\"_He doeth great wonders in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that\ndwell on the earth by means of these miracles._\"  Rev. xiii. 12, 14.\n\n\"_Power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations._\"\nRev. xiii. 7.  \"_He shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt\nhimself, and magnify himself above every God._\"\n\nAcclaiming him as very God, the people suddenly prostrated themselves\nin worship before the great deceiver.\n\nSuddenly the voices of the two witnesses were heard.  Both voices were\nclear and distinct, yet neither clashed with the other, even though\neach voice used separate terms.  They stood about a hundred yards apart\nfrom each other.\n\nEveryone rose to their feet, every eye was fixed upon the two grand,\nfearless faces, as they thundered forth their words of warning of\njudgment, of entreaty.  Then suddenly they turned their gaze and their\nspeech upon Apleon himself.\n\nAs the \"Te Deum\" sprang spontaneously from the lips of Ambrose and\nAugustine, each saint voicing an alternate stanza, so now the two\nwitnesses hurled their fulminations against the Man of Sin:\n\n\"_Thou heart of all foulness and deceiveableness, with the breath of\nHis lips shall the Christ slay thee._\"  Isa. xi. 4.\n\n\"_Thou marked one, the Lord shall consume thee with the spirit of His\nmouth, and shall destroy thee with the brightness of His coming._\"  2\nThess. ii. 8.\n\n\"_O thou enemy!  Thy destructions shall soon come to a perpetual end._\"\nPs. lx. 6.\n\n\"_It shall come to pass in that day_ (when Jehovah shall deliver His\npeople out of thy hands) _saith the Lord of Hosts, that I will break\nthy yoke_ (Apleon Emperor, Man of Sin, Anti-christ) _from off the\n'peoples' neck._\"  Jer. xxx 8.\n\n\"_Judgment shall sit, and Christ shall take away thy kingdom, to\nconsume and to destroy it unto the end._\"  Dan. vii. 26.\n\n\"_Tophet is ordained of old, yea for thee, thou Man of Sin, it is\nprepared: God hath made it deep, and large; the pile thereof is fire\nand much wood: the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth\nkindle it._\"  Isa. xxx. 33.\n\n\"_And thou shall be taken, and with thee The False Prophet, thy\nco-adjutor, he whom thou hast deputed to work miracles before thee, and\nin thy foul name, and with all those whom thou and thy False Prophet\nhave deceived, who have received thy brand on them, and who have\nworshipped thine image.--These all, you, your prophet, and your dupes,\nshall be cast into a lake of fire burning with brimstone_\".  Rev. xiii.\n2, 3.  Rev. xix. 20.\n\nLow and mocking, a laugh broke from Apleon, upon whose brow there still\nplayed that lambent flame.  The laugh was caught up by the multitude,\nuntil one far-reaching volume of mocking, derisive laughter went\nrolling out-and-away from The Broadway, to Gareth and Goab, and every\nother suburb of the city, and back again.\n\nAs the last echo of the laughter died away, Apleon called, to his\nViceroy:\n\n\"Where is the axe and the block?\"\n\n\"Here, Sire!\"\n\nA score of men bearing broad, gleaming axes, with thrice a score of\nothers, bearing, each three, a blood-red enamelled block, came forward\ninto the centre of the square.\n\n\"Take those two drivelling prophets, and behead them!\" cried Apleon.\n\nA thousand hands were stretched towards the witnesses.  This time they\nwere readily taken.  Their bodies were dragged to the blocks, and with\none stroke to each, they were beheaded.\n\nWith a shout of triumph, that spread far and wide, the people acclaimed\nApleon as \"God Almighty.\"\n\n\"Let no man touch that carrion, to bury it!\"\n\nWas the order of Apleon.\n\nThat was to be doubly his hour of triumph.  All arrangements had been\nmade for his official coronation.  An immense awning of purple and gold\nsilk, was stretched over the whole of \"The Broadway.\"\n\nThe time occupied in stretching the whole thing was not more than sixty\nseconds.  A throne of Ivory, Pearl, and gold was set in the centre of\nthe pavement, beneath the awning.  Everything was done with the\nrapidity of a stage-setting in a theatre--_it was all very theatrical_!\n\nA score of trumpeters executed a wonderful fanfare, then, amid more\npomp than the world had ever yet seen, a crown, of fabulous value and\nof extraordinary magnificence, was set upon the head of Apleon, who\noccupied the throne, each of the ten kings actually touching, and\nhelping to set the crown upon his head.\n\nHitherto, Apleon, though upheld by the ten kings and governments, had,\nafter all, been an un-crowned Dictator.  Now, in the hour of his\nseeming triumph over \"The Two Witnesses,\" he was crowned Roman Emperor\nof the ten-kingdomed confederacy.\n\nWhen the coronation ceremony was finally completed, and Apleon, mounted\non his black horse, and surrounded by the ten kings, started to ride\nback to the Palace, he ordered messages to be flashed to all the cities\nof the world, announcing three days of rejoicing over the slaying of\nthe Witnesses, and also the announcement of his own coronation.\n\nThe rejoicings in Jerusalem, Babylon, and elsewhere, over the death of\n\"The Witnesses\" was wilder than the \"Mafficking\" [Transcriber's note:\nMafeking?] in England of the Boer war days.  The two Witnesses had been\na source of torment and fear upon all peoples (save those who clove to\nGod) and now that their headless bodies lay stark and dead on the\nmarble pave of \"The Broadway,\" the people \"_rejoiced upon them, made\nmerry, and sent gifts one to another_.\"  Rev. xi. 10.\n\nThe outrage upon decency, sanitation, and even common humanity, in\nsuffering the two bodies to remain unburied, lasted three days and a\nhalf.  Three days and a half was long enough period for the\nrepresentatives of every nation, gathered in the city and\nneighbourhood, to be perfectly assured that they were dead.  \"_And\ncertain ones from among the peoples and the tribes and tongues and\nnations behold their corpses three days and a half, and suffer not\ntheir corpses to be put in sepulchre_.\"  Rev. xi. 9.\n\nWhen Edward the 7th of Britain, lay dead in the great Abbey of the\nEmpire, it was counted high honour to be part of the _silent_ guard\nover the coffin.\n\nAnd men almost fought for the privilege to stand guard over the\nheadless forms of the Two Witnesses lying on that marble pave in\nJerusalem: \"_It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem_.\"\nLuke xiii. 33.\n\nBut _these_ death-guards were not silent.  They laugh scornfully,\nderisively, and crack jokes upon the now silenced testimony of the Two\nWitnesses.  Caricatures, and comic cuts upon their lives, their death,\ntheir oft-repeated warnings, were printed and sold in the streets of\nthe city.\n\nIt was the evening of the fourth day after the setting up of the image\nin the Temple, and three and a half days since the Witnesses were\nslain.  A last, a final public function before the dispersal of the\nkings, and others specially gathered for the coronation, and other\nceremonies, had been arranged for 6 o'clock in \"The Broadway.\"\n\nApleon, and the other kings had gathered.  The trumpeters had blown one\nblast upon their silver instruments, when a cry of horror burst from\nthe gathered multitudes.  For the bodies of the Two Witnesses suddenly\nstood upon their feet.\n\nThey were facing Apleon, as they stood up.  Their eyes met his\nstartled, fearsome gaze.  His face was deathly pale.  A tomb-like hush\nof awe and fear was upon the gathered peoples.\n\nSuddenly, overhead, _three_ deep notes, like thunder rolled through\nspace.  The multitude thought it was thunder, the resurrected Witnesses\nknew it for the voice of their Lord, crying \"_Come up hither!_\"\n\nAnd instantly their bodies rose in the sight of all the people.  No\nawning was spread over the square, this evening, and every eye beheld\nthe ascent of the resurrected saints, a wondrous cloud seeming to\nupbear them upon its billowy whiteness.\n\nAn overwhelming fear fell upon everyone.  The arranged kingly function\nwas suspended.  Yet still the people remained.  It was as though they\nwere spell-bound.\n\nAnd while everyone waited, wondering and fearing, a low, deep rumbling\nwas heard beneath their feet.  Then the earth trembled, and rocked.\n\nFor one long, shuddering instant every voice was hushed, horror got\nhold of the people.  Then in a moment yells and shrieks of terror\nescaped men and women alike.  From the roofs of the houses there came\npiteous cries for help, for, with the trembling of the earth, the\nhouses rocked like children's houses of cards.\n\nIt grew dark, and bewildered by the sudden awfulness of the whole\nsituation, and maddened by the hopelessness born of the sense of\ninsecurity of even the foot of ground upon which each stood, the mob\nrushed blindly hither and thither.  Panic, in its most hideous form got\nhold of them.  In their blind, unseeing rushes they collided with each\nother, and a score of fierce passions leaped to life within them, chief\nof which was a lust for war.  Madly, savagely, senselessly, neither\nknowing or caring with whom they fought, they stabbed and shot, and\nclawed and scratched, and boxed and wrestled with each other.\n\nThe many horses stampeded, and beat down hundreds of the people beneath\ntheir iron hoofs.\n\nThe darkness deepened, it grew sooty, inky.  The horrors pressed upon\nthe people, women and children, and even men grovelled on their faces\nin the dust, clutching and clawing at the ground.\n\nThunder in the heavens, and thunder under the earth deafened and\nterrified every soul.  Fierce, wide, jagged ribbons of awful flame came\nout of the blackened heavens.  Scores of thunderbolts, red and flaming,\nleaped out of the blackness of cloud above, and, hissing as they came,\nwrought awful death among the mobs upon which they descended.  The\nsmell of burning flesh filled the air, making a new horror.\n\nThe thunder and rumble beneath the earth increased.  The whole surface\nof the city heaved like the swell of a storm-tossed sea.  Chasms,\nfissures, gulfs yawned every-where, and thousands of people toppled\ninto the opened earth.  Suddenly, the whole heavens were filled with an\nappalling succession of frightful crashings; it was as though hundreds\nof millions of powerful rockets were exploding in successive volleys of\nmillions each.  Beneath the earth, thunders and crashings went on at\nthe same time.  Then, in every direction, the earth fissured and gaped\nand yawned wider than ever, and with blood-curdling roarings and\ncrashings, a whole tenth part of the city tottered and fell into the\nyawning gulfs, with thousands upon thousands of people.\n\nSlowly, the rumble of falling buildings, and the hideous thunders below\nand aloft died away, and a strange, awesome hush fell upon the city.\nSlowly, too, the darkness melted, leaving the sky blood-red.  The blood\ngradually merged into pink towards the centre of the dome, the pink\nbecame gold, then every living eye in the city and suburbs became\ncentred upon that golden centre, and all saw the forms of the TWO\nWITNESSES, with a pavement of dazzling white cumulus beneath their\nsandalled feet.\n\nThe wondrous scene was as the very voice of God to the watching\nmultitudes, if they could but have understood, the voice testifying to\nthe power and truth of God and His word.\n\nIt was the _new_, the fashionable part of the city that had suffered in\nthe earthquake and its attendant horrors--the part of the city where\n\"Satan's seat was,\" chiefly.\n\nWith the engulphing of the most fashionable part of the city, there was\na consequent heavy toll of human life.  Seven thousand men of name, of\nnotable rank, perished in the earthquake.\n\nWhen the last building had tottered into the yawning chasms of the\nriven earth, and the souls of the late deriders of God had toppled into\ntheir hell; when the clouds of dust had cleared away; when no further\nearth-rumble came, then with a gasp of terror the remainder of the\ngathered thousands of people \"_Gave glory to God_.\"\n\nThere was no worship; no sorrow for their sin; no repentance; not even\nany remorse; certainly no conversions of the whole mass, any more than\nwere of Jaunes and Jambres, when they declared, of the Miracles of\nMoses and Aaron, \"_This is the finger of God_.\"\n\nSome there were, who had been near to yielding to the pleadings of the\nTwo Witnesses, who were wholly won to God in this hour, but the vast\nmass of the people continued to worship the Beast.  Their cry to God\nhad been but a terror-stricken cry.\n\nBy the morning the gathered masses had wholly recovered themselves, and\nthe suspended public function was carried out.  One part of this\nfunction was the partition of Palestine among certain rulers,\nmillionaires, and others.  \"_He_ (Anti-christ) _shall divide the land\nfor gain_.\"  Dan. xi. 39.\n\nWith the horror and fear of the survivors of this earthquake, the\n\"_Second Woe\" was finished, \"and behold the third woe cometh quickly_.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nFLIGHT!  PURSUIT!\n\nThroughout the latter half of the \"Day of Blasphemy,\" when the\n\"Abomination of Desolation,\" had been set up in the Temple of\nJerusalem, the exodus of fearsome, fleeing people went on.  With nearly\nthree million visitors, from every land, the more or less rapid\ndeparture of a hundred thousand or more, was not noticed.  In fact,\nmore than that number of persons might be expected to leave every\ntwenty-four hours--the ordinary exit of visitors after the special\nvisit.\n\nBut, presently, it was reported to Apleon, that a mighty exodus of Jews\nand Gentiles, few of whom wore the \"Brand of the Covenant,\" had taken\nplace, and was still taking place.  He had spies everywhere.\n\nThe whole of Jewish population, with those on visit to the city for\nthis special occasion, were either _for_ the Anti-christ or _against_\nhim, those against him were but a very small minority.\n\nThe deluded, idolatrous Jews will hate and betray their nearest and\ndearest relations and friends, as Micah prophesied that they would:\n\"_Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide; keep the\ndoors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom_.\"  Micah vii. 5.\n_And endorsing this, Jesus said: \"They shall deliver you up to be\nafflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all, for my\nname's sake.  And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one\nanother, and, shall hate one another_.\"  Matt. xxiv.\n\nWith father, mother, brother, lover, sister, friend all acting as\nbetrayers of their own kith and kin, Apleon soon learned much that he\nneeded to know as to the fugitives.  He discovered that the many\nthousand fleeing Jews had, first, at least, travelled southwards, and\nhe instructed his emissaries to ascertain the objective point of these\nfleeing Jews.  He left the whole thing in the hands of his chaplain,\n\"The False Prophet,\" who had the essence of all the subtlety of Hell in\nhis composition, with all the devilish ingeniousness of cruelty of\nevery Inquisitor who had ever practised in past days.  A \"lamb\" in\nseeming, he was a \"dragon in actual nature.\"  Rev. xiii. 11.\n\nSpies had informed him that Cohen, the first high-priest, was\nundoubtedly the leader of the fugitives, but that his wife and daughter\nhad refused to accompany him.  \"They are wholly with our World-Lord,\nApleon,\" one of the spies had said.\n\n\"Will Cohen, think you,\" asked the chaplain, \"steal back under cover of\none of the dark nights and try to induce his wife to join him?\"\n\n\"No,\" laughed the spy.  \"He will think himself well rid of her.  She\nhas been the plague of his life.  Every drop of her blood is as sharp\nas the juice of a lime.  Her lips distil wormwood.  And vinegar is a\ncloying sweetness compared to her kindest thought or utterance, and----\"\n\n\"But the daughter,\" interrupted the chaplain, sharply, \"What of her?\nIs she a replica of her mother?\"\n\n\"Not a bit, not a bit of it!\"  And the eyes of the betrayer flashed\nwith a new light.  \"Miriam is as beautiful as a houri, as fair as the\nlight of a sun-lit day after a black night of tempest, and as sweet in\ndisposition as Rachel, the favoured of our father Jacob.\"\n\n\"If she is all this, why is she unwed? or perhaps she loves, and\nperhaps we could make her a tool of her lover, and thus find out where\nher father has led those dogs of fugitives.\"\n\nThere was a look of hate and malice in the eyes of the betrayer, as he\nanswered: \"Yes, she loves, loves as her very life, but the man she\nloves is an even greater zealot than her father, and he has gone with\nCohen--curse him! may he never more be seen by Miriam!\"\n\nThe chaplain laughed maliciously: \"Oh! the wind blows in that quarter,\neh?  You love the fair Miriam, but another has cut you out!\"\n\nThe betrayer was inclined to be surly, but the chaplain knew how to\nspeak like the \"_lamb_,\" and quickly mollified the young Hebrew.  Then,\ntogether, they plotted and conferred, their plotting based on the\nsupposition that young Isaac Wolferstein, the fugitive lover of Miriam\nwould return, secretly, to induce Miriam to share the loyal-to-Jehovah\nflight of himself and her father.\n\n      *      *      *      *      *      *\n\nThe vineyard of Cohen was an eighth of a mile from his villa, and the\nvilla was a mile and a half from the Jaffa Gate of the city.  Miriam\nhad wandered out as far as the vineyard, for her heart was too sore to\nsleep that night.  She made her way to the arbour, where so often Isaac\nand she had held sweet and tender intercourse.  During the last twelve\nhours, she had turned unto God and unto the Messiah who was so soon to\ncome to deliver His people and to set up His kingdom.\n\nShe had gazed upon the resurrected Two Witnesses, as they had appeared,\nglorified, in the Heavens, after that awful earthquake.  And, recalling\nthe words of their preaching, and all that her lover and father had\nurged upon her before they reluctantly left her, to flee the city, she\nhad been suddenly bowed before God, in penitence and prayer.\n\n\"If only Isaac would come back for me,\" she moaned, as she dropped\nwearily upon the seat of the arbour.\n\n\"He has come back, Mirry, darling!\"\n\nAt the first sound of the voice that spoke, she leaped to her feet,\ncrying: \"Isaac!  Isaac!  Forgive me, dear, that I----\"\n\nShe got no further, his arms enclosed her fair form, his hot lips gave\nand received love's pure caress, and when at last he spoke again, it\nwas to say: \"God has given us again each other, darling, and nothing\nbut death must ever part us again.\"\n\nThe hours passed and to them they seemed but as minutes.  He had much\nto tell of the flight of the Believers, as he termed them, and had many\nwords of message from her father.\n\nThe morning comes early in Palestine.  At the first blush of dawn they\nstole out of the vineyard, to where his motor waited.  They had eyes\nonly for each other, as, hand in hand, they moved through the morning\ntwilight.  Then, with a bewildering suddenness, from the off-side of\nthe motor, a dozen crouching men sprang out.\n\nFive minutes later, amid the mocking, jeering laughter of their\ncaptors, they were being taken to the city--only not together.  Miriam\nwas forced to ride _in_ the car seated by the side of their betrayer,\nthe man whom she hated, and whose love-overtures she had scorned and\nrepulsed.  Her wrists and her ankles were bound with cords, and she had\nbeen lifted into the car, bodily, by the man of her hate.  To humble\nher and to shame her, the cur had kissed her again and again before her\ncaptive lover, then with a carefully judged malice, he had seated her,\nby his side, on the seat that _faced_ the rear of the car, so that her\ncaptive-lover would be further tormented by the sight of her, compelled\nto accept his, his rival's, caresses.\n\nIsaac Wolferstein was cruelly bound, fastened to the rear of the car,\nand made to stumble over the road, and often to be dragged, when the\npace of the car carried him off his feet.  Once or twice he almost\nfainted, for the soles of his feet were skinned--his captors had\npurposely divested him of his shoes and socks.  The ants found out the\nbare, bleeding feet and added torment to his pain.\n\nThe city was astir as the car entered.  The news was shouted from the\ncar, that one of the accursed, who defied \"The Lord, Apleon,\" had been\ncaptured, and was to be tortured in the Broadway.\n\n      *      *      *      *      *      *\n\nThe great open space was crowded with people.  As, of old, the Roman\npopulace gathered in holiday, theatre mood to see the Christians\ntortured and slain, so had this great concourse gathered about the\nbeautiful Miriam, and her handsome lover Isaac Wolferstein.\n\nOne of the Kiosks, from which \"Covenant\" brands were worked, was\nopened, and the spring instrument was brought out.  Apleon's chaplain\nwas there, and in a voice heard clearly by everyone at the farthest\nremove from him, he asked:\n\n\"Isaac Wolferstein, will you worship \"The Lord Apleon?\"\n\nWolferstein was hoarse with pain and thirst, but lifting his head\nproudly, he looked the \"_False Prophet_\" full in the eyes, as he cried\nfearlessly:\n\n\"Never!  Apleon, is a demon, and of his father Beelzebub!\"\n\n\"Silence, you beast!\" yelled his tormenter, and he struck him across\nthe lips with the stick he carried.  Then he turned towards the\nbeautiful Jewess, saying:\n\n\"Miriam Cohen.  Will you worship our Lord Apleon, and wear his brand?\"\n\n\"Never!\" she cried.\n\nHe spat at her, as he said, \"Well, we shall see!\"\n\nHe turned to Wolferstein again, saying: \"Where has Cohen, the\nex-priest, and that herd of disloyal pigs gone?\"\n\n\"I will not tell you!\" replied the captive, proudly.\n\n\"You defy me, so be it.  Aha, aha!\"  The \"_False Prophet_\" laughed\nmockingly.  Turning to some of the Apleon guards who were massed on two\nsides of the Broadway, he said:\n\n\"Strip him! and lash him----.\"  He lifted his eyes to the sun,\ncalculated how it would travel, then, with a fiendish smile, he\nindicated one of the pillars of the colonnade, \"lash him there were the\nsun will reach him.\"\n\nThey tore the clothes from the fine form of the loyal young Jew.  Then,\nwhen he was absolutely nude, they fastened him to the pillar.\n\nA honey-seller stood in the crowd.  An officer of the guards spied the\nman, and called him out.  \"Take a handful of that fellow's honey,\" he\nordered one of his men, \"and lightly smear that foul Jew's back and\nshoulders, his face and ears too.  Don't put it on thickly, but as\nlight as you can, that the insects may find his flesh _through_ the\nhoney.\"\n\nThe officer's bidding was done.  Then began as hideous a martyrdom for\nIsaac Wolferstein, as had ever come to a soul loyal to God.  The flies,\nants, and a score of other stinging things found him out.  His\nhoney-smeared flesh was black with them.\n\nIn his agony and torture he turned his eyes upon Miriam.  \"My darling!\"\nhe cried, as well as his dried leather tongue and throat would let him.\n\"God will pardon you, surely, if you bend to circumstances, and wear\nthe foul sign!\"\n\n\"But I should never forgive myself, Isaac,\" she called.  \"And how could\nI meet Jehovah's searching eye, if I failed Him now.  Courage, courage\ndear one!\"\n\nShe knew, as we know, that Wolferstein meant no disloyalty to his God,\nbut that he was momentarily beside himself with the agony of his\ntorture and his love for her.\n\nWith a very suave, mocking smile, \"_The False Prophet_\" spoke across\nthe six yards that separated him from Miriam, saying:\n\n\"Tell us where your father and that foul herd that went with him, are\nlocated.\"\n\n\"I will not, not even if you torture me to death,\" she cried.\n\n\"Wait until your torture begins, before you brag!\" this to Miriam.\nThen turning to some of the soldiers, he cried: \"Strip her, don't leave\na rag upon her, and treat her from top to toe with that smearing of\nhoney!\"\n\nWolferstein shut his teeth sharply with the agony that swept over him\nat this order.  In that moment he was unmindful of his own torture, in\nhis dread contemplation of his loved one's shaming and torment.  He\nshut his eyes that he might not see all that followed.\n\nThe brutal soldiery took a fiendish delight in fulfilling the order\ngiven them.  They literally rent the clothes off the beautiful girl in\nstrips and ribbons.  Then when she stood absolutely nude before them,\nthey smeared the beautiful form with the honey.\n\n\"Lash her to that pillar,\" cried Apleon's hellish deputy.  He indicated\na pillar, adding: \"While they will both get the full benefit of the\nsun, they can see each other--lovers are never really happy out of\nsight of each other!\"\n\nThere was a roar of laughter at this thrust.\n\nWe cannot--there is no need to detail all their sufferings.  In less\nthan two hours both were crazed with the blistering sun, and the\nravening of the foul and biting insects.\n\nOnce, just before the crazing robbed him of coherent thought, the mind\nof Wolferstein travelled to the Psalm he knew so well from his\nchildhood's days, and his black backed lips feebly murmured:\n\n\"Be not far from me, O God, for there is none to help me.  Many bulls\nof Bashan have compassed me.  I am poured out like water, my heart is\nlike wax, it is melted within me.  My strength is dried up like a\npotsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; I am brought into the dust\nof death; for dogs have compassed me; the assembly of the wicked have\nenclosed me.  Be not Thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste\nThou to help me.  Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the\npower of the dog.\"\n\nThe lovers were alike, both past speech a moment later, and it looked\nas though they would soon be past consciousness.  Not a single eye,\napparently, in all that vast crowd, had cast a glance of pity upon\nthem, no voice had been raised in sympathetic pleading for them.\nDevilism was the heart of all things, and it changed men and women into\nveritable demons.  Their persecutors had been as fiends in their\ntorturing, and the onlookers enjoyed the scene as of some fine sport.\n\nAnd now it looked as though both were dying.  Both were losing\nconsciousness.  The half-closed eyes were blood-shot; the lips were\nbaked black, and hideously swollen; their mouths were open; and where\nthe suffused blood--from the fierce knottings of the cords that bound\nthem--showed blue and purple, the veins were swollen to the bursting\npoint.\n\n\"The block and the axe!\" commanded \"_The False Prophet._\"  The grim\nthings were brought.\n\n\"Loose the carrion!\" came the next command.\n\nA dozen hands were busy in a moment with the knotted cords.  Miriam was\nthe first to be fully released.  Her eyes were closed; her breaths were\nheavy, slow throbs; her beautiful form bent and swayed; and the soldier\nwho held her had to bear all her weight.  He carried her to the block;\nthen, waiting, glanced for instructions to where the officer of the\nguards, and \"_The False Prophet_\" stood.\n\nAn executioner, toying with his axe, stood by the side of the block.\n\n\"Off with it!\" called \"_The False Prophet_,\" laughingly.\n\nThe soldier lifted the nude, insensible form of the beautiful girl so\nthat her neck rested in the hollow of the block.  He held her in\nposition.  The axe fell.  The head rolled to the stone pave.  A woman\nclose by, caught the head by the hair, twisted her fingers well into\nthe beautiful black swathes, and swinging the gory thing around her\nhead, let it fly from her hand, shouting, as it hurled through the air.\n\n\"A kick-off, for the _first_ team!\"\n\nThe mob, among whom the head fell, began to play football with it.  A\nmoment later, the head of Isaac Wolferstein rolled to the pavement, and\na second woman caught that and hurled it over the heads of the people\nin the opposite direction to that in which Miriam's head had gone.\n\n\"A kick-off,\" shouted the hurler of the head, \"for the _second_ team.\"\n[1]\n\n      *      *      *      *      *      *\n\nThis effort to trace Cohen and the fugitives had failed, but the\nknowledge soon came in, in four or five different ways.  One of the\nwireless messages had brought a clue.  Some traders brought in a fuller\nclue, and rapidly other news came to hand.\n\nIt soon became perfectly clear that there existed some kind of evident\nunderstanding between the various fleeing crowds, and that their first\nplace of united meeting was to be one of the agricultural colonies near\nto the old Kadesh-Barnea.\n\nBy this time the fugitives had had four good days start.  Apleon\nordered an enormous body of troops to go in pursuit, and to slay or\ncapture the fugitives--capture, by preference, that they might be\npublicly tortured and beheaded.\n\nMad with the lust for blood, and that fouler lust of Religious revenge,\nthe pursuing host sped southwards.  The wondrous new motor-trains, that\nwould career over hillocks easier than a thoroughbred hunter gallops\nover a turfy down, carried the expedition.  There were a hundred trains\nof thirty cars each, besides a thousand or more single Motor-Cars,\ncarrying from twelve to twenty persons.  Worked on the then latest\nprinciple,--ether-driven--the cars and trains swept onward at the rate\nof a hundred miles an hour.  Over head, travelling at the same rate,\nwas a fleet of aerial war-ships, armed with infernal torpedoes, that if\ndropped into any town or community, would wipe out every living soul,\nand destroy the stoutest city, in a few minutes.\n\nIt looked as though the devoted band of Jews and Gentiles who had fled\nsouth were doomed.\n\nWild, exultant shouts of ironical laughter and unholy glee burst from\nthe land and aerial pursuers, as they came within a moment or two (at\ntheir rate of travelling) of the fugitives.\n\nThe latter had seen them, heard them, and, as a body, were bowed in\nprayer for----.  They scarcely knew what to ask, for deliverance or for\nfortitude, so that the essence of their prayer was \"_undertake for us,\nLord!_\"\n\nThe sky lowered over their heads.  They thought it was the aerial fleet\nhiding the sun--but the winged warriors were not _quite_ come up over\ntheir place of gathering.\n\nThe prostrate refugees remained, to a man, upon their faces.  Souls in\ndirect dealing with God have no curiosity as to outside events.\n\nSuddenly, like the hiss of ten thousand times ten thousand snakes, a\nrushing sibilation passed through the momentarily darkened air.  At the\nsame instant the earth trembled, and there was an awful, thunderous\nrumbling in the nether world.\n\nSimultaneous with both of these phenomena there came yells and screams,\nthen,--anon--silence.\n\nThe mass of refugees raised themselves, and stood silent with awe and\nthankfulness.  Sheets of flame had rushed out of the heavens,\noverwhelmed the aerial fleet of vengeful pursuers, fired the vessels,\nand hurled men and machines downwards into a mighty gulf.  For the\ntrembling, and thundering of the earth had been the result and\naccompaniments of a terrible earth-quake, that now swallowed up the\nwhole pursuing host--land and aerial, alike.\n\nFor a moment or two no sound came from the mighty crowd of\nmiraculously-delivered refugees.  Then, suddenly, one of the late\npriests of the Temple, a chorister-priest, burst into song:\n\n\"_Sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously.  The Lord is my\nstrength and my song, and He is become my salvation: He is my\nGod . . . .  My father's God, and I will exalt Him.  The Lord is a Man\nof war: the Lord is His name.  Our enemy's chariots and his host hath\nHe cast into the earth . . . .  Thy right hand, O Lord, is become\nglorious in power: Thy right hand, O Lord, dashed in pieces the enemy.\nAnd in the greatness of Thine excellency Thou hast overthrown them that\nrose up against Thee; Thou sentest forth Thy wrath, which consumed\nthem._\"\n\nAlmost in the instant of the starting of the song, thousands of Jews,\n(and Gentiles, as well) had recognized the Red Sea Triumph Song, and\nhad joined the voice of the leader.  What a swell of triumph it was!\nOn, on they sang:\n\n\"_The enemy said: I will pursue, I will overtake; my lust shall be\nsatisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, and my hand shall destroy\nthem.  Thou didst blow with Thy wind, and they were destroyed._\n\n\"_Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the Gods!  Who is like Thee,\nglorious in Holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders.  Thou\nstretchedst out Thy right hand, the earth swallowed them.  Thou in Thy\nmercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed: Thou hast\nguided them in Thy strength.  The people shall hear, and be afraid:\nsorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestine.  Fear and dread\nshall fall upon them: by the greatness of Thine arm they shall be as\nstill as a stone; till Thy people, O Lord, till the people pass over,\nwhom Thou hast purchased._\n\n\"_Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine\ninheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made, in the\nSanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established.  The Lord shall\nreign for ever and ever._\"\n\nThree times over, led by the impromptu priest-precentor, that grateful,\njubilant, delivered people sang the last sentence.\n\nThen, as their song of praise finished, the leaders took counsel\ntogether as to what they should do next.  It was the unanimous feeling,\nand expressed opinion, that Apleon would send forth other expeditions\nto destroy them, if he learned that they had escaped the fate of his\naerial and land pursuit.\n\n\"I do not believe,\" cried Cohen, the chief spokesman among the Jews,\n\"that God Jehovah has permitted one of our pursuers to escape.  God's\njudgments, like His mercies, are full and complete.  Will Apleon, the\nTraitor to his covenant-word, ever know the fate of our pursuers?  I\nbelieve not, unless anyone of us here retrace his steps to Jerusalem to\ntell him, and that would mean public torture and death to the\ntale-bearer.\"\n\nHe paused, and glanced around on the throng nearest to him, as he asked:\n\n\"Does anyone present know anything in the Scriptures relating to this\npresent position, that will serve as a guide to our movements now?\"\n\nA tall, fine-looking man responded by lifting his right arm.  He was\nasked to speak.  He came forward and stood upon the hillock where Cohen\nstood.  Holding aloft a Bible, he cried:\n\n\"Men and Brethren, of the stock of Israel, and Gentiles associated with\nthem.  I was a Christian minister, so-called, in Australia, when the\n'Rapture' took place.  I was _left behind_, because, though I could\npreach eloquently enough, and could keep my church filled to\nover-flowing.  I was not a converted man; I had been trained for the\nchurch, as my only brother had been trained for the bar.  I never\nrealized the need of conversion, my soul was filled with pride in my\ngifts, hence I was left behind when Christ came for His own,--and,\namong His own, thank God, were many 'Israelites indeed,' as well as\nGentiles.\n\n\"Since my conversion, friends, (and though too late for the Rapture,\nyet still the glorious event took place within forty-eight hours of the\nRapture) I have _studied_ my Bible, to see what should happen.\nEverything _has_ happened according as the New Testament has laid it\ndown: The 'people of God,' the Jews, have built their Temple.  They\nmade their seven-year covenant with Apleon.  The Anti-christ, the\nScripture calls him.   At the end of the three and a half years (_half_\nof the covenant time) he orders the Sacrifice to cease in the Temple at\nJerusalem--and everybody here knows how _literally_ all this has\nhappened.\n\n\"He has set up his own image to be worshipped, as was foretold, and\nGod's ancient people, with those of us here who are Gentiles, have\nfled.  We are here, to-day, here at this moment, living out exactly\nwhat the New Testament had all along prophesied would come to pass.  In\nthat wonderful book, which deals with these times in which we are now\nliving,--Revelation twelve, it says, that the faithful Jews, and\nothers, '_were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly\ninto the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time,\nand times, and half a time_, (three and a half years from now,)\nfriends, which period will complete the seven years of Apleon's\n(Anti-christ's) reign.\n\n\"Now listen again to that same prophesy, friends: '_And the Serpent_\n(Apleon) _cast out of his mouth water as a flood, after_ (the\nfugitives, us who are here today) _that he might cause them to be\ncarried away of the flood.  And the earth helped_ (the fugitives) _and\nthe earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon\ncast out of his mouth._'  Has not every item of this been actually\nfulfilled, has not God opened the earth and swallowed up the flood, and\ndelivered us?  Then that wonderful prophecy goes on:\n\n\"_And_ (the fugitives) _fled into the wilderness, where they had a\nplace prepared of God, and where they should be fed for twelve hundred\nand sixty days_, (three and a half years.)\n\n\"I do not pose as a prophet, friends, but I cannot help thinking from\nall I read, some of which I have quoted to you, that God's mind for us\nis that we should make our way into the wilderness beyond here, where\nGod's people of old time went, after God had swallowed up Pharoah's\nhosts, even as He has just swallowed up Apleon's hosts.  For, did you\nnotice, in the word I quoted to you just now, it not only said '_the_\nwilderness,' but '_her place_.'  It was the wilderness yonder there----\"\n\nHe pointed Southwards with his finger.  \"In Sinai; where Moses fled\nfrom the wrath of Pharoah; where Israel fled when pursued by the\nEgyptians; where Elijah fled from bloody Jezebel, and where, again and\nagain, God's people have found shelter, so that God calls it '_her_\nplace.'  It comes to me, as I speak thus, that since Apleon's attempt\nto destroy us has failed, (whether he will learn that, or not, he will\nknow that his punitive expedition does not return to him) his rage will\nbe fixed against all, in every part of the world, who will not Worship\nhim, and his image.  So that the persecuted ones, in each land, against\nwhom his rage shall blaze, will probably flee to some wilderness in\ntheir own land, while thousands of those who cannot flee will meet\nmartyrdom.\n\n\"But wheresoever the wilderness shall be, whether down there in Sinai,\nor in that vast desert in my wonderful land of Australia, or in one or\nother of America's deserts, or the desert of whatever land it may be.\nGod will, I believe, miraculously feed, as He miraculously fed the\nfugitive millions of Israel with manna, and fed Elijah with food from\nHeaven by ravens.  He could send 'manna' again, or any other food he\npleased.  Or he could as readily feed if he pleased, with one meal to\nlast the three and a half years, as he could make his servants of old\n'go in the strength of one meal for forty days.'\"\n\nThere was a little more in this strain, then there followed a kind of\ngeneral conference upon the matter in hand.  The whole thing was too\nserious to be delayed, or trifled with, and, eventually, it was agreed\nto travel as swiftly as might be to the \"Wilderness of Sinai,\" where\nwaiting upon God, they would hope to be directed in any future\nmovement, or be sustained by his wonder-working hand.\n\n\n\n[1] May God arouse readers of this scene to reflect that there must be\nthousands living to-day, who will suffer thus hideously.  Some, too,\nwho to-day are members of churches, others, children of Christian\nParents, many too, of the \"Almost persuaded\" among us.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nMARTYRED.\n\nIt was three months since the image of Apleon had been set up in the\n\"Holy\" place in Jerusalem.  Now all the world worshipped \"The Beast,\"\nfor the images had been multiplied until every town and city and almost\nevery church, etc., had its own idol.\n\nThe world had begun by \"_Wondering after_\" the Beast, it gave itself up\nto error, despised the Truth, opened itself to receive the \"_Strong\ndelusion_,\" the _Anti_-christ lie, so that the _worship_ of the Beast\nhimself, then of his image, became but just consequent steps one after\nthe other.\n\nIn Ancient Roman days its Emperors took divine titles, accepted homage,\nworship, honor, all of which belonged, by right, to Deity alone.\nAugustus had temples reared for the worship of himself, and, through\nall the ages since, the remains of one of these temples (at Angora) has\nremained, and inscribed upon a great stone lintel is the significant\nword: \"To THE GOD AUGUSTUS.\"  Near by, in the same district, is a\nkindred inscription, \"To MARCUS AURELIUS . . . . _by one most devoted\nto his Godhead_.\"  Nero and Domitian, fiends of blood and lust, were\nstyled, while they lived, \"GOD,\" and \"OUR GOD AND LORD.\"\n\nAnd Apleon fulfilled, to the minutest letter, all that was prophesied\nof him as regarded his assumption of the divine.  \"_He will exalt\nhimself_,\" wrote Daniel \"_and magnify himself above God.  He will speak\nmarvellous things against the God of gods.  He will not regard any God,\nfor he will magnify himself above all.\"  \"He opposeth and exalteth\nhimself above all that is called God,\" Paul said, \"or that is\nworshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing\nhimself that he is God_.\"\n\nWhatever may be the cause of it, the fact remains that ever since the\nDevil's lie in Eden was absorbed by, and ruined man, there has been a\nproneness, a latent tendency to idolatry in the human race.  And the\n_manifestations_ of this tendency have not been confined to peoples who\nin their recent past have been won from idol worship.\n\nAs late as the revolution days, in cultured, polished France, busts of\nMarat and others, were greeted in the streets with bursts of\nHallelujahs, by the populace, and, even in the churches, all over\nFrance, the people sang odes and Hallelujahs, and bowed themselves\nbefore these busts, and at the mention of their names.   Marat,\nespecially was treated as divine and \"was universally deified,\" and\n\"divine\" worship of his image was everywhere set up in churches.\n\nAnd the \"worship of the Beast\" came about easily, and as the natural\ntransition from the world's earlier adulation of the \"Man of Sin.\"\n\nMillions upon millions of his image, in the form of charms, were worn\nlike the _eikons_ of the Greek church.  In the hour of death these\n_eikons_ (likenesses) \"of the Beast,\" were held before the eyes of the\npassing soul, as the crucifix was held, (in the old days before the\ndestruction of the older ecclesiastical systems,) before the eyes of\nthe dying Romanist and Ritualist.\n\nIn that first three months of the _second_ half of the seven years of\nAnti-christ, much had changed in every way in the world.  Under the\nsupreme dictation of Apleon changes commanded by him were effected\nthroughout the whole world, in one week, that would have occupied a\ncentury in the old days of the nineteenth century, say.\n\nBabylon the Great, which had long since been rebuilt, had become the\nworld's commercial centre.  It was exclusively a _commercial_ city,\nthere was nothing ecclesiastical (Babylon _ecclesiastical_, the\nreligious system had been destroyed, when all _religious_ head-ship had\nbeen summed up in Apleon).\n\nThere was nothing military, in the New Babylon, and though every\nvileness in the form of entertainment was to be found in the great\ncity, all this was but the recreative side of the life of the\ncommercial people of the world's metropolis.\n\nEver increasingly, during the 19th century, and the first decade of the\n20th, commerce had been growing as clamorous and as exciting as the\n\"horse-leech,\" never satisfied, ever crying \"give, give.\"  It had\nclamoured for a common currency, common weights and measures, common\ncode of terms, and a hundred and one kindred things.\n\nBut it was in Babylon the Great, that the woman of Zechariah v.\n1--Commerce--had found all she had been insisting for, through all the\npast years,--and it all emanated from, and was centred in Apleon.  And\nit was all connected with worship.  \"_Covetousness, which is idolatry_.\"\n\nWith the utter destruction of \"Mystic Babylon,\" the vast religious\nsystem, (whose destruction we have seen,) there came a mighty impulse\nof commerce, and of consequent wealth to \"Babylon the Great\" the City.\n\nApleon had made it his head-quarters.  \"_The kings of the earth lived\nwantonly with her_.\"  Her wharves and warehouses--built on that\nwondrous Euphrates--were packed with \"_merchandise of gold, silver,\nprecious stones, of pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, and all\nrare woods, and all manner of vessels of ivory, brass, iron, marble,\ncinnamon, odours, ointments, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour,\nwheat, beasts, sheep, horses, chariots, slaves--and souls of men_.\"\n\nHer vessels traded with the whole world.  Her liners, travelling at 100\nmiles per hour, were in easy touch of every land.  Her pride in her\nMaritime and commercial power, was overwhelming: \"How much she hath\nglorified herself, and lived deliciously. . . .  For she saith in her\nheart, I sit a queen!\"  Her aerial merchandise fleets, too, were\namazing!\n\n      *      *      *      *      *      *\n\nThe three months had brought great changes to the trio in whom we are\nspecially interested--Ralph Bastin, George Bullen, and Rose, his young\nwife.\n\nRalph, in quitting the editor's chair of the Courier, had received a\nhandsome _doucier_, from Sir Archibald Carlyon, and this, at his\nspecial request, had been paid to him in the new paper currency of the\ntime--there was a world-common currency, under the Apleon regime, as\nthere was also a world-common code, weights and measures, etc.\n\nHe had also contrived to turn his savings into the paper currency.\nGeorge Bullen had done the same, though in the case of each of them it\nhad not been easy work, for both were marked men.\n\nThey knew themselves to be hated--and watched.  Again and again they\nhad narrowly escaped death, and each day they realized that it might be\nthe last.\n\nThe news of the wondrous enthusiasm of the world's peoples gathered in\nBabylon and Jerusalem, in their new worship of the golden images of\nApleon, had stirred London, New York, Berlin, Paris--_atheistical_\nParis; and all other great world-centres, and in each city many images\nhad been set up.\n\nThough neither Ralph Bastin, or George Bullen had now anything to do\nwith journalism--they could not obtain work of any kind because of the\nabsence of the \"mark of the Beast\" upon their foreheads.  But both were\njournalists by nature, hence when they knew that the image of the Beast\nwas to be set up in St. Paul's on a given Sunday, they determined to be\npresent to see how far this basest of idolatry had really laid hold of\nLondon.\n\nThe trio lived together in a little house, in a by-street in\nBloomsbury.  Rose would never allow her husband to go out without her;\nthe times were too perilous, either for him to be in the streets, or\nfor her to remain alone at home.  In the actual language of Ruth, she\nhad said to him:--\n\n\"_Entreat me not to leave thee:--for whither thou goest I will go;\nwhere thou lodgest, I will lodge; . . . where thou diest, I will\ndie; . . . the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part\nthee and me_.\"\n\nOn reaching the Mansion House--the old building was still there, though\nused for another purpose--they were amazed at the excitement which\nprevailed in the streets.  Thousands of excited people were moving\nwestwards, many of them evidently bound for St. Paul's.\n\n_Every_one seemed to be wearing the brand of the \"Beast,\" and more than\nonce our trio came very near to being set upon, for that they were\ndefying public opinion, as well as the command of the All-Supreme\nDirector of consciences as well as lives--Apleon--by the absence of the\n\"Mark\" upon them.\n\nArrived at the cathedral they had no difficulty in getting in, since\nthe hour was early, and a rumour having obtained credence that the\ngreat idol was to be wheeled out upon the steps of the cathedral, the\nvast bulk of would-be worshippers remained outside of the huge building.\n\nPresently these outside must have become acquainted with the falseness\nof the rumour for there was a tremendous rush into the building, until,\nin three minutes, it was packed to its utmost limits.\n\nRalph, George and Rose had secured seats, in the centre of the third\nrow, almost under the great dome, for they wanted to get as perfect a\nview of the image as possible.\n\nThe hum of several thousand voices, as the gathered people gossipped\nabout the image, made quite a volume of sound.  Every eye was fixed on\nthe great golden statue.  It was a wondrous piece of work and the\nlikeness of Apleon was an extraordinary one.  The people who were\nseated far back could see only from the breast upwards.  But those\nnearer (Ralph, and George, and Rose among them) who could see not only\nthe whole figure, but the plinth and the pedestal upon which it stood,\nsaw that the inscription on the plinth was the same as that which had\nbeen reported as upon the first image, the one set up in the Temple at\nJerusalem--\"I AM, THAT I AM!\"\n\nA shudder passed over our trio, as they read the blasphemy.\n\nNow, suddenly, a richly-robed priest, holding a silver bugle to his\nlips, stood out on the altar steps.  The shrill bugle call for\n\"silence\" rang through the great building, and a tomb-like hush fell\nupon the multitude.\n\nAnother priest, more gorgeously costumed than the first, came slowly\nforward chanting clearly and distinctly:\n\n\"We believe in Man, in the Religion of Humanity, Man is God, and God is\nman.  We believe that all the excellencies which of old, were\nattributed to the God of the Bible, were but sparks struck out of the\ngoodnesses that were within the man Himself.  Hence we no longer need\nto be Divine by proxy.\" [1]\n\nThe organ rolled out a gay note to which the gathered thousands chanted\na gay \"Amen!\"\n\n\"_We believe_,\" the priest went on in his chant--\"_that the living God,\nis the marriage of Force and matter, of Head and Hand.  And we believe\nthat the product of this co-ordination is in our Great Superman, the\nGod of the Universe, Apleon, our Superior-God, and Him we worship and\nadore--_\"\n\nThe priest made a well-understood sign, and the whole mass of the\npeople _knelt_--they were too crowded to prostrate themselves.  The\ngreat organ pealed forth in some wondrous chordings, that were dying\ndown into zephyr-like breaths, when the voice of the priest broke the\ncomparative silence.\n\nIn harsh, commanding tones, he cried:\n\n\"You three rebels, kneel at once!\"\n\nThe whole congregation lifted their eyes to see two men, and a\nbeautiful woman between them, standing proudly, fearlessly, amid the\ngreat kneeling throng.\n\n\"Kneel, you apostate rebels!\" thundered the priest.\n\nFor answer, Rose lifted her strong, powerful, beautiful voice, in a\nGod-inspired spontaneous burst of _true_ worship, singing:\n\n  \"All Hail the power of Jesus' Name,\n  Let angels prostrate fall.\"\n\n\nRalph and her husband caught the inspiration and the musical key, and\nthe trio had reached the \"Bring forth the Royal Diadem,\" before the\ngreat congregation of blasphemers awoke to the full meaning of what the\nsong of the trio meant.  Then, with a roar like ten thousand lions,\nthey shouted:\n\n\"Kill them!  Murder them!\"\n\nThe priest raised his hand, the bugler sounded \"Silence.\"  The old hush\nfell upon the people, instantly, and the priest, with a triumphant note\nringing in his voice, and with an equally triumphant smile on his face,\ncried:\n\n\"We have anticipated the action of such rebels as these, and have\nprepared for them.  Outside there has been already set up an\nautomatically-locked scaffold--\"\n\nWith a wave of his hand towards our trio, he cried; \"To the block with\nthem, unless they instantly worship.\"\n\nPointing with his long index finger to the three Protesters, he\nshouted: \"Kneel!\"\n\nFor answer they drew themselves upright, and with a ringing gladness\nbegan to sing:\n\n  \"Crown Jesus Lord of all!\"\n\n\nInstantly they were seized, and hurried out of one of the side\nentrances.  With the utmost difficulty a way was cleared for the\npassage of the priests and the three victims--the bugler going ahead\nsounding sharp notes of warning on his instrument.\n\nThey reached the front of the cathedral, at last.  The whole of the\nspace in the front, at the sides, and far away into \"The Fan\" was\npacked with a seething, excited mass of human life.\n\nTwenty feet high, a light but strong scaffold had been rapidly, and\npractically silently, erected--the whole structure having all its\nseparate parts fitted with automatic lockings.  The scaffold stood just\n_out_side the railings that fenced the cathedral from the \"Fan.\"\n\nOn the platform of the scaffold was a conical-shaped block, enamelled\nin a brilliant red.  A huge fellow, leaning on the handle of a\nwide-bladed gleaming axe, stood by the side of the block.\n\nThe trio of _Protestants_ were taken up the steps of the scaffold.  Two\npriests accompanied them.  The chief of the two priests, he who had led\nthe chant in the cathedral, held up before the trio a silver figure of\nApleon, about eighteen inches long, and, (amid the intense silence all\naround, his words were distinctly heard) cried: \"Will you worship God?\"\n\n\"We _do_ worship God--but we will not worship either the Anti-christ,\nAnti-God, or his image!\"\n\nIt was Ralph who, in ringing fearless tones, replied, the other two\nresponding with:\n\n\"Amen! Amen! to our God who sitteth on The Throne, and to the Lamb, for\never!\"\n\nA savage roar swept upwards from the maddened mass below.\n\nRalph was told to bow his head upon the block.  He did so, while Rose\nsang clear and strong:\n\n  \"Am I a soldier of the cross,\n  A follower of the Lamb,\n  And shall I fear----------\"\n\n\nThe chief of the two priests, struck her heavily across the mouth and\nsilenced her.  At the same instant the executioner held aloft, by the\nhair, the severed head of Ralph Bastin.\n\nYells of delight, mingled with \"Long live our God Apleon!\" greeted the\nsight of the head.\n\nGeorge Bullen's head was now upon the block, while Rose, the light of a\nholy triumph in her eyes, unable to sing because of her bleeding mouth,\nshouted, \"Jesus!  Jesus!  Precious Christ!\"\n\nShe kept her eyes from the block, and turned slightly away, as the head\nof her dear one was held aloft amid the frantic delighted cries of the\nmurderous mass below.\n\nIt was her turn now, and she turned rapturously towards the block.  But\nbefore she could lay her head upon the blood-stained horror, the chief\nof the priests thrust her forward to the near edge of the floor of the\nscaffold, and, holding his hand up for silence, cried:\n\n\"Is she too beautiful for the block?\"\n\nHe caught her up suddenly in his arms, and held her as high aloft as\nhis strength would permit, as he shouted:\n\n\"Does any one want her, if you do, say so, and I will hurl her down!\"\n\n\"Behead her!\" roared a voice in the crowd, and thousands of voices\njoined in the cry.\n\nThe priest dragged her to the block and laid her neck in the hollow of\nit.  There was a flash of steel in the sunlight, and the beautiful head\nrolled into the basket.  The next moment it was being held aloft by the\nlong, lovely hair, the people below yelling with joy.\n\nAt a sign from the priest, the bugler sounded for \"silence.\"  Then the\npriest cried:\n\n\"So shall die every rebel against our LORD GOD, _The Emperor_!\"\n\nWith a wave of his hand towards the Cathedral behind him, he added:\n\n\"Our worship will be continued in our Temple and, for today, at least,\nworship will continue all day.\"\n\nThe fools, the dupes, flocked back to the cathedral--as many as could\ncrowd in.  Those who could not get in watched the bodies and heads of\nthe three martyrs for God hurled down from the scaffold on the stones\nbelow.\n\nSomeone suggested the river, and six lengths of line were quickly got,\nand amid the howls of mingled execrations, and the notes of a fiendish\njoy, the three heads and three trunks were dragged down to the\nblackfriars end of the embankment.\n\nHere men cut the clothes from the three bodies, and the naked forms\nwere kicked into almost shapeless masses, before they were eventually\nhurled over the embankment into the swirling muddy Thames.\n\n\"_He, (The False Prophet) had power . . . to cause that as many as\nwould not worship the image of the Beast should be killed_.\"\n\nFrom this day there began a perfect reign of terror on the earth, for\nthe vast bulk of the people who had yielded utter allegiance to the\n\"Beast,\" and to his worship, became heretic-hunters.  Natural affection\nappeared to be actually absent from the world, and sons and daughters\nbetrayed fathers and mothers, husbands betrayed wives, wives husbands,\nand the friend his friends.\n\nThousands were beheaded every month, taking the earth over--men, women,\nand children, who had learned to trust God, and who waited for the\ncoming Kingdom of Christ, when, having put down all enemies under his\nfeet, he should begin his reign of a thousand years.  These saved ones,\nand martyred ones, were \"an innumerable multitude saved out of T H E\ngreat tribulation, from all nations, kindreds, and peoples, and\ntongues.\"\n\n\n\n[1] This creed, in its essence, and often in its terminology is taken\nfrom a book already published, in which the religion of Humanism exalts\nman to the place of God.  (Author.)\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\nA GATHERING UP.\n\nAt this stage it seems well to the writer to gather together in a\nbrief--but necessarily very fragmentary fashion--some of the chief\nevents of the second half of Anti-christ's reign, and those immediately\npreceding the millenial reign of Christ.  The object of this little\nvolume, as well as its predecessor--\"In the Twinkling of an Eye\"--being\nchiefly to incite in the readers of the two books, a desire to look\ninto the wonders of the \"After Events,\" we can only touch upon these\nthings in the most disjointed fashion, many events, from necessity of\nspace, being untouched altogether.\n\n      *      *      *      *      *      *\n\nThe two scenes recorded in previous chapters--the torture and beheading\nof Isaac Wolferstein and his beautiful _fiancee_, Miriam Cohen, and the\nbeheading of three at St. Paul's--were duplicated many thousands of\ntimes, every town and city of the wide world had its own hideous tale\nof torturing and of death.\n\nThe effect upon the bulk of the people was to deepen \"the strong\ndelusion,\" as to Anti-christ, under which they laboured, so that they\nfed upon \"The Lie,\" and became abject slaves in their wills and worship\nof the \"Man of Sin.\"\n\nThe effect of the persecution and martyrdoms upon most of the\nbelievers--kingdom believers--was to stiffen their faith, and to\nconfirm their hope in the near Coming of the Christ, to take vengeance\nupon his foes and deliver his people.\n\nThe licentiousness and blasphemy of the times was as a veritable\natmosphere abroad, so that, affected by it, the love of the many\ntowards God waxed colder and colder, until they flung off the last\nsemblance of allegiance to Him, in thought, word, or deed, and wholly\ngiven up to \"The Lie,\" they ripened rapidly for Judgment.\n\nBut amid the almost universal declension, there was ever the\nremnant--Jew and Gentile--who \"endured, seeing the invisible,\" and\nstrengthening their souls in the special tribulation promise \"_He that\nshall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved!_\"\n\nAnd these endurers shall be God's witnesses unto all nations.  No\nsuffering, privation, no spending or being spent will be counted too\nmuch by these tribulation-time witnesses; they will live only to serve\nGod in witnessing.\n\nThe chief source of temptation and danger to the \"Kingdom Believers\"\nwill be from the ever multiplying \"False Christs.\"  Each new imposter\nparading some new notion, but each in turn, either publicly slain by\norder of the \"False Prophet,\" or mysteriously disappearing.  The only\nlikeness of imposture in them all, existed in their claim to be the\nSaviour who should deliver from the awful days of tribulation which the\nwould-be godly were passing through.\n\nA similar thing preceded the first advent of our Lord, only _then_, the\nsole trust of these imposters was in their own statements; but before\nthe coming of Christ again _to the earth_, when the cry will often be\n\"Lo here is Christ,\" and \"Lo there is Christ,\" these imposters will\nbuttress their claims with the exhibition of supernatural powers.\n\nThe \"remnant\" of faithful Jews which we saw in our last chapter,\nescaping to the \"wilderness,\" will be only a remnant.  The main body of\nthe Jews of the world will have concentrated themselves in Jerusalem,\nits neighbourhood, and parts of Palestine left to them after the\npartition of the land by Anti-christ.  Dan. xi. 9.\n\nIt would seem as though the \"remnant,\" meanwhile learn of God so\nintimately that they become the Evangelizers of the world, preaching\nthe Gospel of the _coming kingdom of Christ_.  Rev. xiv. 6, 7.  Matt.\nxxiv. 14.\n\nAmong those Jews who were unable to escape with the \"remnant,\" there\nare also others who are loyal to God, who would not worship the Beast\nor his image, many of whom are betrayed by their bigoted Jewish\nrelatives.  All these, alike, are delivered up to Anti-christ and to\nhis creatures, to be tortured and to be killed.\n\n\"_Then shall be great Tribulation, such as was not since the beginning\nof the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.  And except those\ndays should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the\nelect's sake, those days shall be shortened_.\"  Matt. xxiv. 21, 22.\nDan. xii. 1.  Jer. xxx. 7, 11, 14, 15.  Zech. xiii 8, 9.\n\nMay it not well be that the imprecatory Psalms, otherwise so difficult\nto understand, in the virulence of their desires for vengeance, etc.,\nare prophetic of these days of persecution and tribulation?  As well,\ntoo, must be many of the _Prayers_ of the Psalms, etc.  Ps. xxv. 2.\nPs. lxxiv.  Ps. cxl.  Ps. lxxix.  Isaiah xxxv. 3, 4.  Isaiah li. 12-15.\nMicah vii. 8, 9.  Luke xviii. 7, 8.\n\nThe almost universal return of the Jew to his own land, with all the\naims of Zionism, and other kindred movements among the Hebrew people\ntoday is, curiously enough, not marked by the _religious_ spirit, but\npurely national.  The comparatively few pious souls (certainly not more\nthan a quarter of a million, if that) who built the Temple, and\nafterwards flee into the \"wilderness,\" or are beheaded rather than\nworship the Beast, or who, unable to get away in time, are beheaded for\ntheir loyalty to God, are now left out of future count in the history\nof the final fate of Jerusalem.\n\nThe city will probably be enormously enlarged and will come to embrace\nmiles of suburbs, as London has absorbed towns as far distant, almost,\nas Croydon, in Surrey.\n\nIn the latter years of the great Tribulation there will appear to be a\ngeneral rising of the nations against Jerusalem--against the Jews.  It\nmay well be, that all the powers will have become so indebted,\n_financially_, to the Jews, that there shall be an universal outbreak\nof Anti-Semitism, the real cause of the outbreak being inability on the\npart of the nations to pay their debts, when they shall make common\ncause against the Jew, hoping thus to clear off their debts, by the\ndestruction of their creditors.\n\nPreparatory to this great and final struggle, the great eastern\nboundary river, the Euphrates, will be dried up.  The _literal_\naccomplishment of this great physical wonder, is an absolute necessity,\nif the vast hordes of the Eastern armies are to be marched to Jerusalem.\n\nEven as those days of the end draw nearer and nearer God's people of\nthat time will suffer more and yet more.\n\n\"_Happy the dead who in the Lord do die from henceforth.  Yea (saith\nthe Spirit) that they may rest from their toils, for their works do\nfollow with them.  Ceased only that form of service which brings\nweariness, and have found perfect happiness in the ability to continue\nservice without weariness_.\"--ROTHERHAM.\n\nWhile this is true of all the saints of all the ages, it is\nspecifically true of those who, in The Great Tribulation, shall lay\ndown their lives for God in faithful, enduring obedience.\n\nAnd now the end draws ever more rapidly near.  North, East, South and\nWest of Palestine the armies of allies against Jerusalem close in upon\nher.  Had the Jewish race been as loyally devoted to their God and His\nWord as they had been to Anti-christ the Deceiver, and his vile,\npromulgated laws, they would have, inevitably, recognized Psalms\nlxxxiii. 3, 4, as a prophecy of this time and the approach of their\nfoes: \"They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted\nagainst thy hidden ones.\"  They have said, \"Come, and let us cut them\noff from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in\nremembrance.\"\n\nBut God has not forgotten His promises to Israel, and the time of her\nworst visitation, is to be His opportunity:\n\n\"_Wait ye upon Me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the\nprey; for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may\nassemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my\nfierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my\njealousy_.\"  Zeph. iii. 8.  \"_Now also many nations are gathered\nagainst thee (Zion,) but they know not the thoughts of the Lord,\nneither understand they His counsel: for He shall gather them as the\nsheaves into the floor_.\"  Mich. iv. 11, 12.  \"_In that time, when I\nshall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also\ngather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of\nJehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for My people and for My\nheritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted\nMy land_.\"  Joel iii. 1, 2, 9-12, 14.  Zech. xiv. 1, 2.  Zech. xii. 2,\n3.  Ps. lxviii. 1-3.  Joel ii. 32.\n\nAgainst the gathered multitudes of the armed nations--every devilish\ninstrument of war then known, being brought to bear against the doomed\ncity, doomed as the allies consider it--the Jews can bring but a\ncomparatively feeble resistance.  With seeming ease, Jerusalem would\nappear to be taken.  \"_The city shall be taken, and the houses rifled,\nand the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into\ncaptivity_, AND THE RESIDUE OF THE PEOPLE SHALL NOT BE CUT OFF FROM THE\nCITY.\"  Zech. xiv. 2.\n\nWith great spoil, full of unholy rejoicing, their souls steeped in\npride, their hands stained with blood, the victorious armies march to\nthe great plain of Esdraelon to hold a mighty revel, and to prepare for\nany future event.\n\n      *      *      *      *      *      *\n\n  \"How oft after anxious provisions of man\n  Flashes in with a silence God's unforseen plan!\"\n\n  \"God is a tower without a stair\n  And His perfection loves despair.\"\n\n\nThe residue of the people of Jerusalem, who were left in the city on\nthe triumphant departure of the allies of Hell, were utterly broken in\nspirit.  Their discomfited hearts will be being prepared for some word\nor sin.  Will they then begin to see their national, as well as their\nindividual folly?  Who can say for certain?  But the near-to-come\nevents with them, would almost seem to point to something like this.\nCertainly, God's unforseen plan was about to flash in upon their\ndespairing condition.\n\nThe world's peoples were \"_fully ripe_\" for the Judgment, and the\n\"_sharp sickle_\" of Judgment was now waiting to fall into the earth.\n\nFirst come \"signs,\" every sign a warning, yet the peoples, the enemies\nof Christ, will not hear nor see.  \"_Immediately after the Tribulation\nof those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give\nher light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the\nheavens shall be shaken_.\"  Matt. xxiv. 29.  Isaiah xiii. 9-10-13.\nJoel ii. 30, 31.  Joel iii. 15.  Rev. vi. 12-14.\n\n\"_And then_\" (_after_ the Tribulation, and _after_ these\n physical signs and disturbances) \"_shall appear the sign\nof the Son of Man in Heaven_.\"  Matt. xxiv. 30.\n\nWhat will this sign be?  We cannot actually say.  The only Scriptural\nhint we know of is our Lord's own word that \"the Manifestation of His\nPresence will be as the lightning which flashes from the one end of\nheaven to the other.\"\n\nIt may be that this will occur while men are horrified with the\nunnatural darkness, and that the \"sign\" will be a sudden and momentary\ncleaving of the black heavens, so that the glory of the Lord will break\nthrough, and He will, for an instant, be revealed in close proximity to\nearth.  Will it be thus that the Jew will receive his sign from heaven?\n\nThat which follows, and which should be rendered: \"_Then shall all the\ntribes of the land mourn_,\" points to the connection of this verse with\nZechariah's prophecy: \"_And I will pour upon the house of David, and\nupon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and\nsupplications: and they shall look upon ME Whom they have pierced, and\nthey shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall\nbe in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his\nfirstborn_.\"  Zech. xii. 10.\n\n\"And again, the manner in which Zechariah's prophecy is quoted in the\nApocalypse may, perhaps, afford some slight argument in favour of the\nexplanation of the sign suggested above, namely, that it is Christ\nHimself seen for a moment through a rift in the clouds, for John says,\n'_Behold He cometh with the clouds: and every eye shall see Him, and\nthey also which pierced Him: and all the TRIBES OF THE LAND shall mourn\nbecause of Him_.'\n\n\"Thus the Jews, although they may not as yet understand all, will at\nleast know that it was the Messenger of Jehovah whom they slew, and\nthat in so doing they pierced Himself.  And they will mourn with no\nfeigned lamentation, but as one mourns for his first-born, nay, his\nonly son.  All their pride will have broken down; for the word will\nthen have been fulfilled, '_I will take away out of the midst of thee\nthem that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty\nbecause of My holy mountain.  I will also leave in the midst of thee an\nafflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the\nLord_.'  Zeph. ii. 11, 12.\n\n\"Then will God look down upon the stiff-necked and rebellious people,\nwhom long centuries of chastisement could not subdue, and lo! a\nremnant, broken-hearted and contrite, humbly confessing that '_all\ntheir righteousnesses are as filthy rags, that they are all fading as a\nleaf, and that their iniquities, like the wind, have carried them\naway_.'  They long for the personal interposition of God their Father,\nand cry, '_Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens, that Thou wouldst\ncome down!_'  They are ready at last, for their Messiah.  Christ has\nbecome precious to them: there is no need that He, the true Joseph,\nshould longer refrain Himself.  He had indeed said, 'Ye shall not see\nMe henceforth till ye shall say, \"_Blessed is He that cometh in the\nname of the Lord_.\"'\"\n\n\"But that word withholds Him no longer; for now their eyes are waiting\nfor the Lord their God, until that He have mercy upon them: their souls\nare watching for Him more than they that watch for the morning.\"\n\n\n(PEMBER'S \"GREAT PROPHECIES.\")\n\n_Then shall He suddenly come, \"His feet shall stand in that day upon\nthe Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the\nMount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and\ntoward the west, and there shall be a very great valley, and half of\nthe mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the\nsouth.  And ye shall flee to MY valley, when He shall touch the valley\nof the mountain to the place He separated_.\"  Zech. xiv. 4, 5.\n\nIn this great valley of His special making it is possible, probable,\nthat our Lord will shelter His people, while He is destroying the\nhordes of Anti-christ.  It is of this that Isaiah speaks: \"_Come My\npeople, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee:\nhide thyself as it were for a little moment_, UNTIL THE INDIGNATION BE\nOVER PAST.  _For behold the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the\ninhabitants of the earth for their iniquity_.\"  And when that awful\njudgment shall be over--\"_which shall burn as an oven_,\" they shall\ncome out of their shelter \"_skipping as calves of the stall_.\"  A\nwondrous figure of the frolicsome calves coming out of the darkness of\ntheir stalls into the glorious light, and into the full freshness of\nthe luscious meadows.\n\nAll this time Anti-christ and his warrior hosts are camped in the plain\nof Esdraelon, preparing for a fresh attack that is to utterly demolish\nthe Jews as a nation.\n\nTo Apleon, The Anti-christ, word comes of the appearance of Christ, and\nthat He is espousing the cause of Israel.\n\nSatan, and his colleagues, self-blinded, suppose that they can war with\nand overcome even Christ and His hosts of saints; and, determined to do\nthis: \"_the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take\ncounsel together, against His Anointed_.\"  Psa. ii. 2.\n\nArmageddon--the Valley of Megidda; \"The Valley of Jehosaphat;\"\n\"Bozrah,\" all these names are mentioned as the scene of the great final\nconflict between Anti-christ and Christ, between the armies of the\nearth, and the translated Saints of God who return with Christ.\n\nIt is probable that the line of the encamped hosts of Anti-christ will\nextend from Bozrah, on the southeast, to Megidda, on the North-west.\nIs it we wonder, merely a coincidence that this should measure exactly\n1,600 _Stadia_, the actual distance named in Rev. xiv. 16, as that over\nwhich the blood of the judgment wine-press flowed.\n\nSurely Habakkuk's wonderful prophetic vision covered this great\nbattle-field.  \"God came _from Teman_, and the Holy One _from Mount\nParan_.\"  The march of God's indignation would seem to be from Sinai,\nthrough Idumea, past Jerusalem, and on to the mighty field of\nEsdraelon's plain.\n\nOh, what a scene it will be!  The glory, the judgment! our Christ on\nHis White Horse; His eyes a flame of fire; on his head many crowns\n(diamens,) vestured and girded with his title \"KING OF KINGS AND LORD\nOF LORDS!\" his bride is with Him--for the \"_Marriage of the Lamb_\" has\ntaken place; the bride is every believer who has been gathered out of\nthe world by the Spirit.  You, who read this, he who writes this, if so\nbe we are in Christ, \"_looking for, and hasting the coming of our\nLord_,\" yes, we shall be there, we shall be His army.\n\n\"_On white horses_,\" whether literal horses or not does not matter, the\nterm implies force, power, swift movement, even triumph.  Christ's army\nwill be a cavalry force.  Like our Lord we shall wear no\narmour,--\"clothed in fine linen, white, pure,\"--we shall be immortal,\n\"_no weapon that is formed against us shall prosper_.\"\n\nEvery enemy, every foe of Christ will be there.  The earth-armies, the\ndwellers of the earth, Demon-possessed, will be blinded, deluded by the\nlie of the Anti-christ, and \"The False Prophet.\"  There is no madness\nor delusion into which the most rational of men will not run when they\nare demon-possessed.\n\n\"_Outside the city_, the battle takes place, for the city has become\nHoly by the recent presence of Christ.  Not even a private soldier of\nAnti-christ's hosts is _inside_ the city, for, it may well be, that\nChrist has already appropriated it.\n\n\"_Outside the city, the wine-press is trodden_!\" wonderful figure!\n\"Fully ripe,\" is said to be the condition of the \"_grapes of the vine\nof the earth_.\"  What grape, more so a _ripe_ grape, can stand the\nweight of a man as his foot crushes down upon it?  And the iron heel of\n\"The Lion of Judah,\" crushes out the life of these gathered hell-led,\nhell-inspired hosts, \"_and blood came forth out of the wine-press of\nGod's wrath, up to the bits of the horses for distance of 1,600\nstadia_.\"  A river of blood 160 miles in length, and reaching to the\nhorses' bits in depth!  Even if it be taken as a figure only, the\nfigure is never so great as the fact it prefigures!  \"_The land shall\nbe drunk with blood, and its dust made fat with fatness, for it is the\nday of Jehovah's vengeance, the year of recompenses for the controversy\nagainst Zion_.\"  Isaiah xxxiv. 7, 8.\n\nAs a picture of the absolute triumph of God, on this occasion, the\nPsalmist uses the most awful figure of any in the Bible--THE LAUGHTER\nOF GOD!  \"_He that sitteth in the Heavens SHALL LAUGH; the Lord shall\nhave them in derision_.\"  Ps. ii. 4.  \"_God is not mocked_!\"\n\n\"_And the Beast (Anti-christ) was taken_.\"  The ring-leader is first\ntaken, not slain with the others.  Taken alive, he is cast into the\nLake of Fire.  The confidence of the mighty host of Hell-inspired\nwarrior hosts, had been \"_Who is like unto the Beast?  Who can war with\nhim?_\"  But they see him taken, taken alive, taken without being able\nto lift a finger against his captors.  Tophet had been prepared for\nhim, and into that awful abyss he sinks to rise no more.\n\n\"_And with him the False Prophet who wrought the miracles in his\npresence_.\"  Colleagues in evil on earth, the two are hurled into the\nsame Lake of Fire.\n\n\"_And the rest were slain with the Sword of the Sitter on the horse_,\n(The Conquering Christ,) _which sword proceeded out of His mouth_.\"\n\"_He speaks and it is done_.\"\n\n\"_And a certain angel standing in the sun_,\" has been placed there\nready to call forth the final actors on this hideous battle-field,\n\"_cried with a great voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in\nmid-heaven, 'Hither be gathered together to the great supper of God,\nthat ye may eat the flesh of kings, and flesh of captains of thousands,\nand flesh of mighty men, and flesh of horses, and of those that sit on\nthem, and flesh of all (classes of people,) both free and bond, and\nsmall and great . . . and the fowls were filled from their flesh_.\"\nRev. xix.\n\nAt the great and terrible conflict there are lightnings and thunders of\nunheard of force and might.  \"_The Lord of Hosts_,\" says Isaiah xxix.\n6, \"_shall visit with thunder, with earthquake, and great noise, with\nstorm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire_.\"  All through\nGod's judgments, during the seven years of Anti-christ, aerial\nconvulsions will be continual.  One reason for this, during the later\nevents will doubtless be to overwhelm and destroy the myriad _aerial_\nengines of war used by the senselessly deluded attacking hosts arrayed\nagainst Jerusalem and against Christ and His Saints.\n\n\"_And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon\nthe earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great_.\"  Rev. xvi. 18.\nJerusalem will be split into three parts, as a result of this\nearthquake.  But the effect upon the nations is _utter_ ruin,--\"_the\ncities of the nations fell_.\"  London, New York, Paris, Berlin,\nChicago, every other city, collapses like a rent balloon, and the\nopened earth swallows up palaces and cots, men and women, and what the\noverwhelming and the falling shall not slay, shall perish in the awful\nconflagrations produced.\n\n\"_And Babylon the great was remembered in the presence of God to give\nher the cup of wine of the fierceness of His anger_.\"  Babylon, the\ngreat, the colossal city of mighty splendor, re-built, as we saw\nearlier in this book, will have become exclusively a _commercial_ city.\nAll the vice and sin and voluptuousness of all the vilest cities of the\nwhole world, through all the ages, gathered up into one whole foulness,\nwould be as virtue compared with the foulness and vice and\nvoluptuousness of the Great Babylon.\n\n\"_Fallen, Fallen, Babylon the Great_.\"  May we gather from the\ntwice-repeated word \"Fallen,\" that the collapse comprises the two\nthings \"_Babylon, mystery!_\"--the foul religious system, the false\nworship,--and also Babylon _the city_?\n\nGod does not settle His accounts every Saturday night as petty\ntradesmen do.  Babylon had been garnering judgment for herself, from\nthe beginning.  And the cry of doom goes out against her, from Heaven.\n\n\"_Render to her even as she rewarded, and double the double according\nto her works; in the cup which she mixed, mix for her double; insomuch\nas she glorified herself and was wanton, TO THAT PROPORTION give to her\ntorment and grief.  Because she saith in her heart, I sit a queen and\nam not a widow, and shall see no mourning, therefore, IN ONE DAY, shall\ncome her plagues, death, and mourning and famine, and with fire shall\nshe be burnt, because strong is the Lord who hath judged her_.\"\n\nAnd never more after this shall the foul city arise.\n\nAwful convulsions of the earth will take place all over the world.  The\nwhole configuration of the earth shall be changed.  Mountains and\nislands, well known before, will disappear.\n\nWith all the other aerial and other convulsions of nature, a hailstorm,\ncovering an enormous area, will be one of the horrors, when, putting\nthe weight of the stones at the lowest average, they will probably be\nquite a hundred-weight each.\n\nAnd so event will follow event in such rapid succession as to puzzle\nthe writer how to place them wholly in consecutive order.  Satan will\nbe taken and bound for a thousand years.   The _living_ nations will\nhave been judged as regards their treatment of the Jews, and as to\ntheir acceptance of the Gospel of the Kingdom.\n\nOn, on, on, event upon event, until the glorious millennial reign of\nChrist shall be ushered in.\n\nBut before anything of which we have written in these pages can come to\npass, our precious, loving Lord must come into the air to take up His\nown people to Himself.  For this every true Christian should be\nlooking, waiting, watching,--and _working_ while they wait, for He has\nsaid \"_Occupy_ till I come.\"\n\n\n  \"So I am watching quietly\n        Every day,\n  Whenever the sun shines brightly\n        I rise and say,--\n  \"Surely it is the shining of His face,\"\n  And look unto the gates of His high place\n        Beyond the sea,\n  For I know He is coming shortly\n        To summon me.\n  And when a shadow falls across the window\n        Of my room,\n  Where I am working my appointed task,\n  I lift my head to watch the door, and ask\n        If He is come?\n  And the Angel answers sweetly\n        In my home,----\n  \"Only a few more shadows,\n        And He will come.\"\n  \"Even so, Lord Jesus!  Come!  Come quickly!\"\n\n\n\n\n\"FINIS?\"  No!  WAITING!","title":"The Mark of the Beast","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":63396}