The Mark of the Beast

mself wondering whether the churches and chapels would be filled, whether the awe and fear that had fallen u

Supper has been the order of the day in most p

as part of the worship of the churches is concerned, can have no furthe

could secure, that was likely to help him to understand the position of affairs. Again and again, he had said to himself: "How could I have been such a fool? a journalist, a bookman, a lover of research, professing to have the open mind which shou

e sense of need. Previous to "The Rapture" he had been a bi

ng enough within him to make him desire to see what changes, if any, would be apparent in Lo

he was instantly struck by a new tone in the streets. T

er hawkers, their coarse voices, crying their wares,

ere open, and most of them seemed thronged, whole fami

cement, "Matinee at 2, this afternoon. Performance to-night 7-45. New Topical song entitled "The Raptu

blasphemy. Surveying the crowd that stood around the notice, he was struck by the composition of the little mob. It was anything

ng fellow close to him, in a voice loud enough to be heard

idnapped, "Rapturized," as they call it, and that now there's to be no Theatre Censor,

g a voice, almost everyone

he blasphemy ringing out "The Devil's a

be like in a month

own objective was a great Nonconformist church, where one of London's most popular and remarkable preachers had ministered. He had been one of the comparatively few whose

ached his ears, while a deep roar of many laughing voices accompanied the squeakings. A moment mor

hurried on, not so much as casting an eye at the show, though it was impos

re's your poor wife? Hav

, I aint done away with her, she done away wi

aughter of the crowd, th

she is, p'ra

s she's g

e's gone to

onite

h to which he had been aiming. It was filling fast. Five minutes after h

y accustomed to gather there, though the bulk were curious strangers. A strange hush was

was almost as startling as a pistol shot, and hundre

er platform under the rostrum was covered with whi

rostrum stairs. A moment later the man was standing at the desk.

fell upon

ull and sunken. Twice his lips parted and he essayed

ds-for I recognize some who have been wont to gather here

ange, common instinct, than by mere force of Sunday habit. Yet, I cannot but think that many of us, solemnized by the events

ripple of mocking laughter came from others. And one voice in th

ughter the speaker paused. Then

; and we know now-now that it is too late for those of us who are 'left'-t

white-draped communion

ord's Supper, but it dawns upon us, friends, how useless, how empty is the symbol since it was

my R

man in the gallery, the man who cracked that nut,

no voice of reprimand came, no cry of "

ere that morning, with a curious mingling of doubt, hesitancy, fearsomeness, and uncertainty, as well as

ng," the Secretary went on, "some members

ice, and this time it came fro

interruption, the

that stirred him, and for a moment he was too moved to s

ary, has gone. Both wife and daughter lived in the spirit of expectancy of the

into the Secretary's touching words. This time the int

tell me where

heart with g

never had

I've lost

ed with laughter. The devil o

iately followed the laughter,

I have discovered that Religion, without Christ, without the Regeneration of the New Birth, is evidently useless, otherwise, I, with scores of others in this church, this m

guish filled his face, his eyes grew moist with unshed tears, and wer

, deceived themselves, and thus, unwittingly deceived others, and in whose

r the position I find myself in. I can find no guidance as to how to be saved. The whole situation is too solemn, too awful for any fooling. Does anyone here know? Can anyone here tell us how we may f

man's manner and utterance, that even the ribald

e ticking of the clock c

ld not have defined or described

Then a voice broke

itor of 'Th

dged the recognition of himself by an inclination of the head. Then amid a strange

ne-the day of the resurrection of the Christ. Our friend who has just spoken has surely voiced t

was in the very act of explaining the wonderful, expected return of Christ (expected by him though scoffed at by myself

laughter, began mockingly to sing the old revival chorus, "

and that literally awed the interrupter. The effect, too, upon the hesitating, vacillating mass of people

was sitting almost immediately behind the disturber, rose in his seat

us so much as one wag of that cursed red rag of yours, I'll pick y

ceased, Ralph standing straight as a larch, and looking up at the so

e, he went on, as if there

or Revelation for those who are left behind-that is as to the how, I mean, of salvation. Yet that there are to be many saved during the next seven years, is eviden

referring to the fact that, as a Jew, as the Messiah, He came to His own people the Jews, the chosen earthly people of God, and that if they would have accepted Him as their Messiah, His Kingdom-with Him

share in the glory of that coming.) Until that coming, as I said, the Gospel to be preached was to be the 'Gospel of the Grace of God,' and not the 'Gospel of the Kingdom.'

Testament word: 'Seek ye the Lord'-'Call upon the Name of the Lord'-'Trust ye in the Lord'-'Come now and let us reason, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they sha

wondrous Bride of Christ, whom, last week He caught up to Himself into the Heavenlies, yet we may be eternally saved. And, friends, whether I am right or wrong, I am daily pleading the Name of Jesus Christ in all my approaches to God. I plead the Blo

given myself to all this a month ago, I should then have shared in

ispensation, (and which has just begun) that they 'have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' So that though I am not able to reduce my standing to an a

s eyes swept the great assembly

g more and more rampant, more and more pronounced. Presently, friends, we know not but that any hour or even moment now, the awful delusion of the Antichrist lie, may be actually formulated into speech and print, and it w

ngly, suddenly, the words "Great God!" leaped

. They laugh at the notion of there being a God, of there being any Retribution. The great mass of the people are ripe for

utiful harlot of Paris, to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, and, unveiling and kissing her before the high altar, proclaimed her as the 'Goddess of Reason,' exhortin

hile that great, divine restrainer of evil, the Holy Spirit, the third

tichrist, will have almost absolute sway, and if any of us will live to God, we must be prepared to suffer the direst persecution, and all th

ge savage beast, rose here and there from

roudly, and fearlessly

at, doubtless. Antichrist will dominate the earth's peoples. None will be able to trade, to buy or sell, unless they bear on their forehead or their right hand, t

listeners. This time it was deeper, fuller more voices

general rising to their feet, and a rush of the people to the exits. The crush at the exits was terrible. Screams of women mingled with the hoarse cursings of men-me

had preceded him in speaking. The pair watched and listened for a momen

lph's lips, and, before he reali

tly down a steep place int

ant it looked as though each would have spoken. Then, as though some strange power had tied their tongues, they moved on sil

ddy flames, while dense volumes of smoke poured into the upper air from the first

dron, into which a score of men, costumed as satyrs, were pitchforking Bibles. The four sides of the Altar-cauldron had open bars, so that, fanned on every side by th

ble grotesqueness of costume, and forming a kind of open-air fancy-dress ball, disported th

man, crucified head downwards upon a cross. A second side showed a theatre front with a staring announcement "seven day performances." A third side showed a figure of "Bacchus" crow

with long hair of golden hue hanging down upon her shoulders and blowing in the breeze. She was literally naked, save

ness was the order of the hour amon

ollowed in the wake of the foami

r again," said Ralph-he had to shou

dded an assent,

e they boun

ner bearing the inscri

es later the cars were rounded up in fro

. But the rush of the mob was irresistible. They took entire possession of

ilingly on her purple throne, in all her shameless nakedness, was the beautiful form of the foul souled harlot. Her gilded c

neous. Then as she held the goblet high aloft, her

, the Flesh,

sed hand of a handsome, but dissolute-looking man, who, attired in the theat

es of "Dolly Durden! Dear little Dolly Durd

silence, and amid a hush as b

s dead and damned! Their Bibl

Satyrs who were piling the last of their stock of

pplause. Then, as he obtained a comparative s

yde P

ocession, swept down Ludgate Hill, hundreds of throats be

y sat on a

book he held

es from the

t soul the pa

in his best hu

Highness was k

sent out his

and tar, and p

the saint in

wirl'd themse

very shap

range, and rum

St. Anthony

fixed upon

aughter, sig

d win away

throats of the blasphemous mob, until, with unholy unctiousness,

h horny eyes

eyes just l

ones grew in

ald and sk

imp--how unli

looking f

a whisper his c

t downy, sof

houlder she b

liant eyes

is soul with

old chap fo

St. Anthony b

'er his old

e corners the

't choose but

y devils that

agre and dev

o with their

horns and de

vils, laug

ck and dev

uth, and de

urches, devil

eathers, devi

blue and w

claws like

fishes' gi

olish, de

t, and devi

g woman with

he worst devil

n desired, that with the translation of the Church, and the flight of the Holy Spi

s continually augmented by crowds that swarmed up from sid

people, Ralph Bastin and the Secretary of the Church had become s

t mean?" asked the Secretary. "Is this a beginning of

by some of the rude fellows-male and female-of the baser sort. You noticed, of course, that most of those immediately connected with the

o the front of the procession could know the cause of the cheering, but the whole mass of peo

d negress 'mammy' used to say, that this foul demonstration on this golden Sunda

thronged the sidewalks, but the road was fairly clear, and along the gutter-way there swept a gang of boys with coarse, rauco

d at the sacrilege. A pained look sho

ght about largely by the so-called 'Higher critics' of the last thirty years, the men who broke Spurgeon's heart, the Issachars

ed that his companion was Robert J. Baring, principal of

ut that which perhaps constituted the closest tie between them was the fact that both had lost their nearest and dea

ment comes, as come it will, that we are called upon to stand f