"THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION."
The three-and-a-half years since the Covenant with Lucien Apleon, on
the night before the opening at the Temple in Jerusalem, had been
signed, had practically expired.
God's judgments had been seen in many ways upon the earth during these
forty-two months. The position which Apleon now held, as the "World's
Dictator," had not been the work of a day. Wars, no longer local, but
practically universal had, for many long months at a time, been the
order of the history of the world. "Nation shall rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom."
These wars occupying only months at this period, would have occupied
scores of years had they been events of the mid-nineteenth century.
But with the perfection of hideousness--one might safely write
_Hellishness_--of war's latest devices the work of destruction, and
almost annihilation became short and sharp.
Aerial warfare helped to bring about this consummation more speedily.
The firing of a bomb or of a torpedo from an aerial war engine often
accomplished in an hour what could not have been accomplished, a few
years before, under months, often years of old-fashioned war.
These fearful conflicts were not confined to those of kingdom and
nation against kingdom and nation, but citizens of one city fought with
themselves, civil war was "on the rampage." The lust of war, the lust
of blood, born of vile passions, burned in the breasts of men and
women--for with the growth of the "woman's rights" question, and the
establishment of the "equality of the sexes," bands of women fought
bands of women.
These Amazons, indeed, wrought even fouler cruelties and butcheries
than the men, for as there is no fouler odour under the sun than that
of rotted lilies, so the depths to which "the lilies of the human
kind"--women--will descend is fouler and deeper than the abysses of
fall of men.
The hideous wars--international, civil, and _personal_
conflicts--resulted, as wars ever do, in famine and pestilence. Only
in this case, these later horrors had been fearfully aggravated,
terribly prolonged.
The picture of the famine is most striking. The rider of the black
horse is shown bearing a pair of scales, typifying the exactitude of
weight--for single grains counted in these days. A man's full day's
wage would purchase only a pint and a half of wheat (a choenix) and
that would form but a _scant_ feeding for the day for himself. But
there will then not be wheat enough to go round, and people will hail
barley with the rapture of starving souls.
The tendency of the days in which we write these lines, is an
ever-increasing luxury in eating and drinking, and this, too, among all
classes.
That tendency will increase more and more, so that the inhabitants of
the famine stricken earth will feel scarcity more than they would
otherwise have done.
The pestilence followed the famine, until from war, famine, and
pestilence a fourth of the entire population of the earth was swept
away.
During the last twelve months quite a crop of false Christs had arisen.
Each of these, in his turn, had had a certain following for a brief
period, and each had had an untimely end.
The only really notable impostor was a man who had suddenly appeared in
London, and who had immediately attracted immense attention. His
knowledge of scripture, of the prophecies especially, was marvellous to
those whom he addressed. No one ever attempted to verify his
quotations, much less his connections of scriptures. For as Jannes and
Jambres, Pharaoh's two chief Magicians, withstood Moses by demonology
and jugglery, so, by a hellish jugglery, did "Conrad the Conqueror" (as
this false Christ styled himself) juggle with the scriptures.
Apleon, the Anti-christ, had, apparently, taken no notice of any of the
petty tribe of mushroom-like false Christs. That he was well
acquainted with the sayings and doings of each of them goes without
saying, as it was equally so as regarded this more presumptious of the
crew "Conrad the Conqueror." There were many, in London especially,
who wondered that Apleon did not appear and refute this man's claims,
if they had no foundation.
The evident success of the imposter wrought his own downfall. Inflated
with his success he publicly declared that Apleon would perish beneath
a blast of his (Conrad's) nostrils, and announced that on a certain
evening at ten o'clock on St. Paul's steps he would publicly re-state
his claims, and also defy Apleon.
In the first year after the Rapture, the whole of the shops and
warehouses on both sides of Ludgate hill, with all the purlieus at the
back of each range of buildings, had been demolished, so that a huge
open space, spreading fan shape, (the handle at St. Paul's) swept out,
ever-widening, on the left as far as the approach of Blackfriar's
Bridge, on the right through Farringdon Street to the Viaduct Bridge.
Within this space a million people could not only have congregated, but
have heard distinctly, without any effort, the merest whisper spoken
into the latest phone discovery the "Hearit." As, too, every bit of
that open space was many yards below the level of St. Paul's steps,
every one had a perfect view of all that transpired there.
The night in question, when the latest and greatest of the false
Christs, "Conrad the Conqueror," had arranged to defy Apleon, proved to
be exceptionally dark.
Three quarters of a million people were gathered in "The Fan"--that
open space had been christened "The Fan" on account of its shape. It
was admirably lit by the new light "Radiance," while a perfect blaze of
radiance illumined the huge scarlet-covered, scarlet-draped platform
that had been erected immediately in front of the steps of the
Cathedral. (It was all very stagey, very theatrical, but then that was
characteristic of the new age and regime.)
The false Christ appeared, and was greeted with a curious mixture of
groans and hisses, and of cheers. (A keen judge might have been
pardoned if he had said that the bulk of the cheers were ironical.)
Speaking in his ordinary voice, the suction plates of the "Hearit"
transmitted his words to the farthest remove of that "Fan" so that all
could easily hear.
With a kind of gentle gravity, at first, he began by saying:
"Nearly nineteen hundred years ago when I walked this earth, at my
first advent, I warned my disciples--and through them the world--that
many false Christs would come, but when it was said 'Lo, here!' or 'Lo,
there!' that they were not to go hither and thither, many of these
false Christs have appeared, and have tried to lead the people astray.
Oh foolish people! How easily were they bewitched! And how worse than
foolish the imposters were. They might have known that I should not
have suffered them to take My Name in vain."
For ten minutes he talked thus, then suddenly changed his tone, and
raising his right arm--it was long, thin, gaunt, and the wide-flowing
sleeve of his white seamless robe, fell back showing the lean limb
almost to the shoulder--he poured out a defiant speech against Apleon,
adding "I have challenged! I wait for my challenge to be accepted."
A sudden, awesome silence fell upon all the gathered, listening
thousands. They had not long to wait, for in that same instant a
fierce crimson light shone in the dark heavens above them, and looking
up they saw a fiery ruby scroll like flame rushing downwards through
the sky.
An instant later the fiery scroll resolved itself into the characters
of the "Covenant Sign" ("The Mark of the Beast.") With a swoop, like
that of some crimson Albatross, the thing descended until it seemed
almost to touch the platform where the challenger "Conrad" stood.
Then, to the amaze and delight of the vast audience in "The Fan," out
from convolutions of the central sign of the "Mark," Apleon stepped on
to the platform.
His aerial chair (on this occasion made in the form of his own "number
and sign") rose swiftly again and hovered mid-air.
The false Christ was as white of face as his robe. He visibly cowered
and shrank before the coming of the giant figure of the World's
Dictator, as the latter strode in three long strides across the
platform.
For one brief second, amid the hush and silence of the absolute awe
that rested on the mighty audience, challenger and challenged stood
facing each other. Then Apleon's voice was heard, as with a sweep of
his hand he uttered the one word:
"PERISH, thou Fool!"
As his hand swept the air in the direction of the false Prophet, a wide
sheet of flame leaped out of space, enveloped the white-robed figure,
and it was instantly consumed. As at the burning of the sacrificial
lamb at the dedication of the temple at Jerusalem, so now, the flame
that had consumed the challenging imposter floated a yard or two over
the spot where he had stood, and slowly resolved itself into "The Sign
of the Covenant" ("Mark of the Beast,") in pure ruby flame.
"_He doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven
on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the
earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do._"
Apleon turned towards the mighty gathering, and said triumphantly: "So
perish all impostors!"
A thunder of cheers rose from three quarters of a million throats!
Instantly followed by the chorus of the Apleon ode!
"Hail! Hail! Hail Man of Men!
World's Deliverer!
APLEON!"
Like a living thing of writhing flames, the brilliant car swept
downwards from the sky, where it had waited. Almost, it seemed to skim
the scarlet floor of the platform and to scoop up its owner, for none
saw Apleon lift a foot to step into it, yet the next moment he was
soaring away seated within the upper convolution of the serpent sign.
For hours, thousands of the people remained within the sweep of the
great "Fan," talking of all that had occurred, and more absolutely
convinced than ever that Apleon was God--_their_ God.
Thrice during the next hour after Apleon's departure, three separate
faithful souls--one of the three a woman--raised a testimony against
the Man of Sin. But each one met with death within thirty seconds of
their first utterance.
"_And white robes were given unto everyone of them; and it was said
unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their
fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they
were, should be fulfilled._"
There were, scattered over all the earth, many thousands of believers
in God, praying "Thy kingdom come." Many of these had turned to God
during the first days of the shock of realization of "things as they
truly were," when the "Church" had been translated to the heavenlies.
The number of these believers had been added to considerably, during
the awful times of war, pestilence and famine, for these horrors (so
plainly predicted in the word of God) had taught them to read their
Bibles with new eyes, and to receive its truths and obey them. Of
these believers, many had been, and many, many more were yet to be
"_slain on account of the Word of God, and on account of the testimony
which they held fast_.
The whole of the three-and-a-half years had been rife with growing
horrors, with licentiousness, and every evil possible to the
unregenerate mind, and heart, and life, when full license is given to
them.
The license and indulgence permitted--even arranged for, in the first
instance--by the apostate church with a view to the more perfect
enslavement of the world's worshippers, had brought forth a full
harvest of evil. The effect of license is disorder, and presently
anarchy. For three-years-and-a-half the apostate church had grown in
assumption and in all abominations, and the effects of the license
permitted, and _fearfully abused_, had produced a condition of things
which became such an intolerable burden, that the time had become ripe
for the authority in all this, to be destroyed.
The apostate church was the cause and the authority for all the excess
of evil of the times, hence the ten-kingdomed confederacy which had at
first buttressed the impious system, now, by united action, destroyed
it. "_And the ten horns which thou sawest, and the Beast, these shall
hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat
her flesh, and shall BURN HER UTTERLY WITH FIRE. For God did put in
their hearts to do His mind, AND TO COME TO ONE MIND, and to give their
Kingdom unto the Beast, until the words of God shall be accomplished._"
(Rev. 17:16-17)
"Man is a religious animal!" And Lucien Apleon, endowed with special
wisdom of his father and Master--the Devil--recognized this necessity
for a religion from the outset of his career.
The Devil has always recognized religion, encouraged it, and has even
instigated it in a hundred forms, during the last 6,000 years. Only
every effort of his Satanic power and force has been directed towards
the luring of the religious soul _away from God_. The Devil is a
Ritualist! He loves to entangle souls in a ritual, and the more
sensuous the ritual, the better he is pleased, because such
sensuousness and ritualism ministers to the "flesh," and while men and
women's religion is fleshly, it cannot be spiritual. And the FATHER
seeketh spiritual worshippers, "for they that worship Him, must worship
Him in Spirit and in Truth." Then, too, Satan knows that all
religiousness that is of the "flesh," tends to make its devotees
anxious for the development of a good-self within them, while true,
spiritual life _in Christ_, leads to the continual consciousness that
"_in me, that is IN MY FLESH, dwelleth no good thing_."
Lucien Apleon encouraged religion, but not the religion of the Lord
Jesus Christ--for he, Apleon was The _Anti_-Christ. It was he, with
his emissaries, taught and guided by Satan, the Arch-enemy of God, and
of His Christ, that had subtlety, secretly energized the
world-religion, that followed the taking away of the church. That
world-wide system had been an amalgamation of all the then existing
false systems of religion. With the taking away of the church every
type of license had been gradually permitted to the worshippers in the
churches of this infernal system, until, at last, as we have seen, the
governments had been compelled to abolish what at first they had helped
to establish--for license had bred such a character and temper in the
peoples that it became a menace to all order.
All this was part of Satan's organized plan, for, when the moment of
the crushing out of this licentious, abominable religious system
arrived, his plans, as regarded Lucien Apleon, The Anti-christ, were so
perfected, by the ripeness of the world for the Anti-christ rule, that
all else seemed plain sailing.
The poor, duped world knew Apleon only as the great SUPER-MAN, "long
looked-for, come at last," the World's Deliverer, who was presently to
be universally acclaimed as the World's Dictator.
The world had long been familiar with the system of private chaplains
attached to great men's households. It was familiar knowledge to them
that Dan, the Free-booter, (in the days of "The Judges") must needs
have a renegade, runaway Levite for a priest, his salary thirty
shillings a year, a suit of clothes and his victuals (as much as a
renegade was worth). Absalom could do little, in his revolt, without
the religious brand, so must needs have Ahithophel. And down to their
own times, the World, at the period of Apleon's coming, was familiar
with private chaplains.
Apleon's chaplain, a swarthy-skinned Jew (to all outward appearance,)
was undoubtedly like Apleon himself, a Satanic resurrection, or if not
a resurrection, certainly energized by the same infernal power. The
Holy Ghost calls this man "The False Prophet." He exercised all the
authority of Anti-christ, "_in his presence_," as well as in his
absence. _Eight_ times the emphatic word "_he causeth_" is written of
him, by the Holy Spirit, and a more hideous, lying, extraordinarily
wicked catalogue of deeds is no where else to be found in the world's
history:
"_He causeth the earth, and those that dwell in it_," (does that refer
to the foul spirits who dwell in that awful under-world, from which we
believe the Anti-Christ, as Judas re-incarnated came, or does it refer
only to dwellers on the earth? It may well mean _both_!)--"_To worship
the first beast_."
As well as his co-associate, Apleon--The Anti-christ, the false Prophet
not only claimed the power to work miracles, but he _did_ work them,
showing a baleful but powerful supernatural control over the forces of
nature. "_And he doeth great miracles . . . And he deceiveth those
that dwell ON the earth by reason of the signs which it was given him
to work in the presence of the Beast_." In Egypt, three thousand four
hundred or more years ago, it was demonstrated by Jannes and Jambres
that there is a supernaturalism of the Devil, as well as of God,
_against_, as well as _for_ God.
Both Anti-christ and his subaltern, the false prophet, dealt largely in
the miracle of fire. The _two witnesses_, who had testified that they
had come from God, had consumed their persecutors, again and again by
fire, and the Hell-born imposters felt the necessity of showing that
they, too, could command fire.
Utterly destroyed by the ten kings, the world was without an organized
religion, and was ready for the fouler, fuller rule of Satan--the
worship of Anti-christ, and his image.
As God had ever had a Trinity of personality and power in Himself, so
Satan in his damnable, deceivable counterfeiting has now _his_ trinity.
Himself (Satan) the embodiment of evil, the suggester, creator,
energizer, he makes a _mock_ Christ--Apleon, the Anti-christ, answers
to the second Person of the divine Trinity. While Apleon's chaplain,
the false prophet, answers to the third person of the divine Trinity.
Energized by Satan, even as Anti-christ himself is, the false Prophet
becomes a mighty force among the world's peoples, persuading them that
Apleon really is God, and worthy of worship. The whole world has seen
and heard of the marvellous miracles of "The Prophet," as he is called.
The infatuation of all the world for the Man of Sin, Lucien Apleon, was
almost absolute and complete. He ruled the world, every department of
it--social, political, commercial, religious. He blasphemed God. He
blasphemed the translated Church that occupied the Heavenlies with her
Lord.
Day by day, week by week, month by month he grew bolder, more impious,
more cruel, more persecuting to the saints that were then living to God.
And through all this time Enoch and Elijah continued their "witness"
for their Lord. As judgment prophets, they had been sent in this age
of judgment, to resist the awful, the gigantic blasphemies of
Anti-christ, and to give to the poor, vain, deluded world its last
awful warning. For bad as had been the apostate Church, so recently
destroyed, the worship of Anti-christ himself, would be infamously more
impious.
The world hated them, yet _feared_ the two witnesses. More than once
when blatant blasphemers, agents of Apleon, had openly opposed them,
and cursed them and their witnessing, these witnesses of Jesus Christ,
"_the faithful and true witness_," had sent forth fire from themselves
and consumed their enemies. And the world had learned to fear them,
though they ignored their warnings.
Many times, too, they had wrought fearful, havoc-making miracles, so
that as it was with the Egyptians so, the days of Moses, so it came to
be with all the peoples who witnessed the miracles of these prophets,
Enoch and Elijah, for they shut the Heaven, in many places, "that rain
should not fall during the days of their prophesying." They turned the
waters into blood, and "smote the earth with every plague as often as
they willed." Until the people hated, and _feared_ them, yet, all the
time, they hardened themselves against God, and the testimony of the
two prophets, as Pharaoh hardened himself against God.
The multitudes learned that though they were absolutely powerless to
hurt the TWO WITNESSES themselves, yet, given that THE WITNESSES were
not present the mob found that they could work their will upon their
followers--and they did, continually.
It was the morning before the great event that had been announced, the
nature of the coming event was not known, though a hundred speculations
were rife. The city was astir early, for the night had been too sultry
for much sleeping, and everyone was more or less excited, as to what
would be the great event which the next thirty hours--more or less--was
to bring. As the sun mounted higher and higher the whole of the
districts around the city belched forth their tens of thousands of
curious people of every nationality, their goal the city itself.
Suddenly--the suddenness was like some magical effect--the two
worst-hated beings in all the world, appeared on a mound of marble
blocks, within a hundred yards of and _out_side the Jaffa Gate.
They were God's two gracious, faithful WITNESSES. The multitudes began
to converge towards the spot where they had suddenly appeared. (It was
a curious fact, however much people might hate the testimony of the TWO
WITNESSES they seemed to have no power to pass on, when once the men of
God began to preach.)
"Men and brethren of every clime," rang out the voice of Enoch. "Once
again, in the name of Jehovah--Jesus, we lift our voices to warn you of
the shortness of the time left unto you in which to repent, and to turn
unto God.
"Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die? as die you certainly will under
the breath of the Christ, when He presently shall come--for He shall
'slay with the breath of His mouth.'
"We preach not the gospel of the grace of God which, aforetime, before
'The Rapture,' was preached, that gospel which was good news of glad
tidings to all sinners. That gospel told how He had lived on earth for
over thirty-years--God inhabiting a human body, for God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto Himself--it told how He died a death of
shame and agony, a substitute for sinners, so that whosoever should
believe on Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. And as
many as believed on Him gave He power to become the sons of God.
"It told of His coming again to receive all those sons of God, dead or
living, unto Himself in the Heavenlies. Less than four years ago He
came. Thousands who knew the truth, but had not accepted it, before He
came, did so after the RAPTURE of the saints, and thousands of those
have already sealed, and many more thousands will yet, seal their faith
with their blood.
"The days of our testimony draws shorter now, we have few more
opportunities of warning you, and of witnessing to our God. But here,
once more, this morning, we preach unto you the gospel of the Kingdom.
The gospel of the coming Kingdom of Christ.
"'For He shall reign whose right it is, and of His kingdom of peace,
and joy, and love there shall be no end.' For nearly two thousand
years men have prayed 'Thy kingdom come.' It is coming soon, but
before He begins His reign, He shall put down all enemies under His
feet. None will be able to hide from Him for His eyes will be as a
flame of fire.
"Those who will _now_ seek Him, accept Him as their king, whether He
comes in their life-time, or whether they lay down their lives as
faithful witnesses to His coming, all such we proclaim, shall live the
glorious life which He has for such."
The crowd numbered a hundred thousand now, and the majority of them
kept up a sullen murmur against the preaching.
A native prince of a notable eastern realm, plucked a javelin-type of
weapon from his cumberband and hurled it full into the face of the
preacher. It never reached its mark, but, boomerang like, it returned
to the thrower and shattered and entered his right temple.
But for the density of the crowd, the eastern would have dropped to the
earth like a stone--for he was dead.
A way was made for a few to drag the body clear of the mob, then, once
clear, those who dragged it thence returned to the crowd. "Without
natural affection,"--a trait of the Times--had degenerated into
"without common humanity."
For half-an-hour longer THE TWO WITNESSES preached, warned, pleaded
with the multitude. Then they stepped from the pile of marble blocks,
and passed quietly away.
As was customary after every such session of testimony, the crowd split
up into many groups and discussed the whole situation.
On this occasion some five hundred men and women, mostly Jews, who had
received the testimony,[1] were moving off in a body, when an unlocked
for incident occurred.
Through all the witnessing of God's two prophets, there had stood among
the listening crowd, a tall, swarthy-faced man, richly attired, a Jew
by race, (that was evident from the marked Hebrew lines of his face).
The expression of his face, during the WITNESSING, had alternated
between mocking and rage. Now his eyes followed the departing band of
men and women who were loyal to the Gospel of the Kingdom.
With a scornful, devilish laugh, he pointed to the departing people, as
he cried: "If we cannot kill the spawn that preaches, why not kill the
hatched-out ones?"
The crowd was ripe for anything. With a roar, like unto Hell itself,
they raced after the godly band and in a moment surrounded them,
brandishing the long murderous knives of the east, and revolvers of the
west.
The foul work of wiping out the whole band of faithful ones began.
Every shot went home, every knife found a faithful heart. The twin
lusts of hate and of religious fanaticism burned in the breasts of the
mob. It was a carnival of cruelty and blood. Everyone wanted to see
it. Other thousands hearing the sound of the shots, poured through the
gates of the city. Everyone wanted a sight of the _entertainment_--for
this the slaying was regarded, as, of old-time, Rome entertained
herself by filling the eighty thousand seats of the great theatre, to
see the Christians thrown to the lions.
There was not a coign of vantage to which the mob did not climb. They
climbed upon the roofs, the balconies, held themselves perilously upon
the sloping verandas, they stood upon window-sills, and hung from
electric light pillars, and tram-line standards. They shouted, and
sang, and urged upon the slayers to mutilate as well as kill "the
carrion."
Then, suddenly, above all the din, and above even the crack of
revolvers, the great song of Apleon, that foul ode of idolatrous
laudation, set to most wonderful music, rang out from thousands of
excited throats. The song was Hell-born, and hellishly sung.
When, a moment later the whole mob had trampled upon the slain
believers--wantonly, heedlessly trod upon them,--in their passage
towards the city, the swarthy Jew who had incited the crowd to their
deed of blood, lit a cigarette, and crossed to where his aerial-chair
waited him. He stepped into the upholstered seat, and turned his head
to watch the mob, then with that evil laugh of his, he muttered: "Men
are but sheep after all, and will follow any bell-wether!"
To his waiting driver, he said: "Esdraelon." The next moment the chair
rose in the air, and like some wondrous bird soared away, northwards.
The swarthy Jew was Apleon's Chaplain, the false prophet.
Jerusalem was enormously crowded. Thousands upon thousands of people
had come up from Babylon, as well as from every part of the world. The
news had been flashed all over the earth, that some world-important
event in connection with the Emperor-Dictator, would take place during
this last week of the first three-and-a-half years of the "Great
Covenant."
At the time of the offering of the Morning Lamb, just as the course of
officiating priests were preparing for the slaughter of the lamb,
Apleon's resident viceroy, entered the Temple enclosure, followed by a
military detachment, and, accompanied by Apleon's chaplain, he whom God
the Holy Ghost has called the false Prophet. The latter ordered the
priest in charge of the "Course," to cease the offering, and to the
amazed protest of the priest, he laughed scornfully, vouchsafing no
other explanation than that it was his and the Emperor's command, that
_all_ Jewish worship-ritual should cease.
The priests could do no other than obey the command, enforced, as it
was, by the presence of the Viceroy, _and the military force_.
The High-Priest lived a mile away from the Temple. One of the minor
officials went off to apprise him of this strange new order.
As the man made his way down the marble road to the city level, he met
a ponderous motor-driven trolley of great length--the thing was
evidently bound for the Temple. Two hundred workmen followed behind
the trolley, and the Temple-messenger noticed that on the trolley,
lying beside the huge coffin-like packing-case that formed its chief
burden, were a number of hoisting and hauling tackles, with a pile of
handspikes, jacks, etc.
It was an hour before the messenger returned, the High-Priest
accompanying him. By that time wonders--infernal wonders--had been
wrought.
From the packing case there had been taken a gigantic image of Lucien
Apleon, and it had been reared upon a plinth of dark green marble, upon
the tessellated platform _within_ the Temple.
The statue was of gold, and upon the green marble plinth was engraved:
"I AM THAT I AM!"
In amazed, frightened horror, the High-Priest gazed for one moment upon
the idolatrous abomination, then, as his blood boiled with a holy,
righteous indignation, he thundered forth the words:
"Thou shalt have no other God before me.
"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, . . . . Thou shalt
not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am
a jealous God--."
"Take that foul, idolatrous thing hence!" he cried, with passionate
warmth. His eyes were fixed upon Apleon's chaplain, (the false
Prophet) whose mocking smile, as he stood by the gang of workmen,
angered him beyond measure.
Not a man moved at the order of the High-Priest, and he thundered forth
his command again:
"Take that abomination down, and hence, or I will call upon Jehovah to
send His judgment fire down and consume you all, and the idol as well."
With a blasphemous oath, the false Prophet, spat in the forehead of the
fulminating Priest, and hissed:
"Silence, fool, idiot, driveller!"
As the foul spittle touched the face of the Priest, he fell prone upon
his back on the pavement of the Temple. A dead hush fell upon everyone
present, for as they gazed upon the face of the dead Priest they saw
that the whole forehead became filled with the "Mark of the Beast."
The silence of this awesome hush was suddenly, startlingly broken by a
peal of mocking laughter. It came from Lucien Apleon's deputy, the
false Prophet.
Then, more startling still, the lips of the golden image parted, and in
deep, solemn tones the idol cried:
"So perish all who shall dare to oppose the Emperor Lucien's will."
This was no trick. It was not a mechanical device within the image.
It was not a clever piece of ventriloquism. Of this we are
assured--the image actually spoke. God's word cannot lie, and John,
under the command of God, wrote it down: "_It was given the false
Prophet to give spirit to the image of the Beast, that the image of the
Beast should even speak_."
"_To give SPIRIT to the image_!" What does that mean? Does it mean
that life was given to it, temporarily? Who shall say? Certainly it
_spoke_!
Unseen, unnoticed, at the very moment that the High-Priest fell, slain
by the false Prophet, there had entered the Temple, Cohen, who had been
High-Priest for the _first_ year of this new Temple's history.
He slipped away as the image uttered its speech. He met many of the
priests of other of the Courses, as they were approaching the Temple,
also numbers of the devout Jews of the city and its suburbs, and many
from other parts of the world, who had been specially drawn hither by
the news that had been flashed world-wide, as to some great event about
to happen in Jerusalem.
"Stay!" he cried. His looks told of something serious, and in an
instant he was the centre of an eager, anxious, enquiring crowd of Jews.
"Jehovah help us!" he went on. "For those who would be true to Him
now, must be prepared for flight or for death. Apleon, is a traitor!
'_He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him; he
hath broken his covenant._' Psalm lv. 20. '_He confirmed a covenant
with us for seven years_.' Daniel ix. 27. '_The words of his mouth
were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were
softer than oil, yet were drawn swords_.' Psalm lv. 21."
Cohen, even while he had been speaking had led the crowding Jews away
from that main road, and now, in a _cul-de-sac_, he was continuing his
words.
"Blind! Blind! that we were, all of us, I, especially, for my Gentile
friend, the editor of 'The Courier'--London daily paper--warned me. He
told me of the meaning of our own prophet Daniel's words, '_In the
midst of the week_ (the seven years of the covenant we made with that
apostate) _he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease_.'
"This he has done this morning. The priests were stopped in their
preparations for the morning sacrifice.
"'_And,_' said our father, Daniel, '_for the over-spreading of
abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation_.'
Daniel ix. 27.
"Brethren, of the House of Israel, the Lord our God is one God. I am
no Mehushmad, but in common with many of our rabbis, I have read the
Gentile New Testament, and there, in the words of the Nazarene Prophet,
(Matt. xxiv. 15, 16.) He prophesied exactly what has come to pass this
morning in our beautiful Temple, for he said:
"'_When ye_ (that is we of the House of Israel) _therefore, shall see
the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand
in the holy place_ (of the Temple)--_whoso readeth, let him
understand:--then let them which be in Judaea flee into the
mountains . . . and pray ye that your flight be not on the sabbath day.
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the
beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be_.'
"Jehovah help us, brethren! This morning has convinced me that these
times are upon us. What _this_ day will bring none but Jehovah can
tell! My last word to you, my advice to you all, is, flee this city,
flee the neighbourhood. For weeks I have had it borne in upon my soul,
that the man we have covenanted with, was working some deep, subtle,
hellish scheme. Now he hath shown his hand, there are but three
courses open to us, _idolatry_--worshipping that idol set up in our
holy place, yonder; _flight_; or _death_."
Even as Cohen harangued his crowd of priests and Jews, Apleon rode up
the white marble road to the Temple. The Hebrew crowd was quite hidden
from any observation from that main road. It was well for them,
doubtless, that it was so.
A moment or two after Apleon and the mighty throng which followed him
had passed, the crowd of Jews left the _cul-de-sac_, and silently,
anxiously dispersed in various directions.
Cohen found himself walking with the man who had been Hight-priest last
year. Together they conversed in low, serious, guarded tones, until
they suddenly discovered themselves close up to a mighty throng
gathered about the now well-known witnesses, Enoch and Elijah.
The two priests paused to listen to the witnesses' denunciations of
Apleon, whom they designated "The Beast."--"The Anti-christ." Both men
had listened often before to these prophets of God, and both had often
been well-nigh convinced of the truth of the testimony of the two
witnesses.
"It is said," whispered Cohen, to his fellow-priest, "that these two
men are the two prophets of the Most High God, Enoch and Elijah--those
two of God's servants who never passed through death."
"The three and a half years of their witnessing," replied the second
priest, "have been crowded with incident, miracle, and much that has
been supernatural. They say that no man has seen them eat. That, like
Elijah, when upon earth, they too have been super-naturally fed. Then,
too, nothing has been able to harm them. Apleon (the priest's voice
was lowered to the merest whisper) has directed his agents to war
against them over and over again. They have shot at them, hurled
vitrol upon them, and tried to seize them, to bind them, but as they
have themselves testified again and again, nothing can harm them _until
they have finished their testimony_."
Cohen bent closer to his fellow-priest, as he whispered: "The book of
Revelation, in the Gentile New Testament, declares that '_they shall
prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sack-cloth.
And when they have completed their testimony, the Beast that cometh up
out of the abyss_ (I believe that is Apleon) _shall make war with them,
and overcome them, and kill them_.'"
"Now if this come to pass, then they will die to-day, for it is a
thousand two hundred and sixty days, this very evening, since they
began their preaching, and----. But, listen, to what the one of them
is saying."
The voice of Enoch rang out as it had done five thousand years before,
when he had prophesied, saying, "_Behold! the Lord cometh with ten
thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all; and to convince
all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they
have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly
sinners have spoken against Him--_."
But now the message of the prophet had in it testimony as well as
warning:
"Have we not warned you for three years and a half, that the man,
Apleon, whom you have all trusted in, was but the tool of his father,
the Devil? Have we not told you often that he worked upon your deluded
minds and imaginations for one purpose only, to keep you from 'The God
of Salvation,' and that, presently, he would set up his own image to be
worshipped in that gilded thing of unbelief, upon that mount, yonder?"
A peal of derisive, mocking laughter greeted this statement.
The voice of the prophet cut the laughter, with its supernatural
incisiveness, so that it rose clear and distinct above the laughter:
"And now all that we prophesied has come to pass. The image of Apleon
(the abomination of desolation) spoken of by Daniel the prophet, has
this morning been set up in the Temple over there. '_And that Man of
Sin . . . opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God,
or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the Temple of
God, showing himself that he is God_.' 2 Thess. ii. 4.
"Upon the pedestal of his image, that was reared this morning, he has
caused to be engraved the very name of our Jehovah God--'I AM THAT I
AM!' as he supposes it to be, because it is thus translated in the
Bibles of the world. There is no sense in that way of putting it, as
there is no sense, nothing but vanity and coming failure and fall, in
that 'Man of Sin' himself. But he has chosen to ape Jehovah-God by
using '_I am, that I am!_' instead of the true translation which has
evidently been hidden from him and which is: 'I AM HE WHO AM FOR EVER!"
"_He is Anti-christ, that denieth the Father and the Son_. 1 John ii.
22. The Scriptures have been issued by millions, every soul of you
here has had an opportunity of knowing the things whereof we again
testify. You have heard, or read, or both, (or you could have done if
you would) that he, the Man of Sin, '_would cause an image of himself
to be made, that he would give life to it, and that the image should
speak_' (Rev. xiii. 14, 15). All this has happened this morning, and
all else will happen that is prophesied. Therefore we cry:
"_Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die? Why should ye be stricken any
more? Ye will revolt more and more. From the sole of the foot even
unto the head there is no soundness in you, but wounds and bruises and
putrefying sores: Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your
doings from before God's eyes; cease to do evil. Turn ye, turn ye, for
why will ye die?_"
Strangely affected by the power and earnestness of this witness of God,
Cohen and his fellow-priest turned reluctantly away. In the heart of
each of them was the determination to be clear of the Jerusalem
neighbourhood that very forenoon, if possible. In fact before one
o'clock had struck, that mid-day, there had taken place a really
remarkable exodus from the city and its neighbourhood. Of these, many
were Jews, in whose composition there was deeply engraved a deep-seated
antagonism to all idolatry.
Then, too, there were many "Kingdom believers" (by what other name can
we call them, since, having missed Salvation by the "Gospel of Grace,"
they now served God, while waiting for Christ's coming to set up His
kingdom.) Many of these fled the city and its neighbourhood, for they
counted not their lives dear when it came to a case of blasphemy and
idolatry. Yet, because the love of life is inherent with the race, and
because, too, these "Kingdom believers," learned to bring others to
God, before the final judgments came, and knowing that it was written
"that as many as will not worship the image of the Beast shall be
killed," they fled Jerusalem.
[1] The Author, in common with every other public speaker, and writer,
on these themes, has been so often asked the question, "What of my
loved ones who are out of Christ, how will they fare when we are gone,
and the Church is gone?" Let me say that the more I study the
Scriptures of the times of which this volume speaks, the more I am
convinced that of the many who are brought to accept Christ (in the
Gospel of His coming to reign, "the Gospel of the Kingdom,") through
the sudden translation of the Church, even though they be ill-taught,
perhaps only half-hearted, they will, under the preaching of the TWO
WITNESSES, be wholly brought into fellowship with Christ, and will,
themselves in turn, become faithful witnesses to the TRUTH. There is
nothing in Scripture to warrant the belief that the preaching of the
TWO WITNESSES will be confined to Jerusalem, and it is surely
reasonable to suppose that London, Edinburgh, New York, Chicago,
Berlin, and all other chief cities, will hear their voices in witness
and warning. They will doubtless have thousands of converts, Jew and
Gentile alike, or where will the great multitude whom John saw, come
from. But all those left behind when Christ comes, who may be won to
Him afterwards, will not only miss the glories of _the Heavenlies_ with
Christ, but will suffer persecution, and many of them death at the
hands of Anti-christ and his emissaries. (Author.)