God grants prayers gladly. In the moment that Death was aiming at him a
missile of down, Hughes-Jones prayed: "Bad I've been. Don't let me fall
into the Fiery Pool. Give me a brief while and a grand one I'll be for
the religion." A shaft of fire came out of the mouth of the Lord and the
shaft stood in the way of the missile, consuming it utterly; "so," said
the Lord, "are his offenses forgotten."
"Is it a light thing," asked Paul, "to defy the Law?"
"God is merciful," said Moses.
"Is the Kingdom for such as pray conveniently?"
"This," Moses reproved Paul, "is written in a book: 'The Lord shall
judge His people.'"
Yet Paul continued to dispute, the Prophets gathering near him for
entertainment; and the company did not break up until God, as is the
custom in Heaven when salvation is wrought, proclaimed a period of
rejoicing.
Wherefore Heaven's windows, the number of which is more than that of
blades of grass in the biggest hayfield, were lit as with a flame; and
Heman and his youths touched their instruments with fingers and hammers
and the singing angels lifted their voices in song; and angels in the
likeness of young girls brewed tea in urns and angels in the likeness of
old women baked pleasant breads in the heavenly ovens. Out of Hell there
arose two mountains, which established themselves one over the other on
the floor of Heaven, and the height of the mountains was the depth of
Hell; and you could not see the sides of the mountains for the vast
multitude of sinners thereon, and you could not see the sinners for the
live coals to which they were held, and you could not see the burning
coals for the radiance of the pulpit which was set on the furthermost
peak of the mountain, and you could not see the pulpit--from toe to head
it was of pure gold--for the shining countenance of Isaiah; and as
Isaiah preached, blood issued out of the ends of his fingers from the
violence with which he smote his Bible, and his single voice was louder
than the lamentations of the damned.
As the Lord had enjoined, the inhabitants of Heaven rejoiced: eating and
drinking, weeping and crying hosanna.
But Paul would not joy over that which the Lord had done, and soon he
sought Him, and finding Him said: "A certain Roman noble labored his
horses to their death in a chariot race before Cæsar: was he worthy of
Cæsar's reward?"
"The noble is on the mountain-side," God answered, "and his horses are
in my chariots."
"One bears witness to his own iniquity, and you bid us feast and you say
'He shall have remembrance of me.'"
"Is there room in Heaven for a false witness?" asked God.
Again did Paul seek God. "My Lord," he entreated, "what manner of man is
this that confesses his faults?"
"You will provoke my wrath," said God. "Go and be merry."
Paul's face being well turned, God moved backward into the Record
Office, and of the Clerk of the Records He demanded: "Who is he that
prayed unto me?"
"William Hughes-Jones," replied the Clerk.
"Has the Forgiving Angel blotted out his sins?"
"For that I have fixed a long space of time"; and the Clerk showed God
eleven heavy books, on the outside of each of which was written:
"William Hughes-Jones, One and All Drapery Store, Hammersmith. His
sins"; and God examined the books and was pleased, and He cried:
"Rejoice fourfold"; and if Isaiah's roar was higher than the wailings of
the perished it was now more awful than the roar of a hundred bullocks
in a slaughter-house, and if Isaiah's countenance shone more than
anything in Heaven, it was now like the eye of the sun.
"Of what nation is he?" the Lord inquired of the Clerk.
"The Welsh; the Welsh Nonconformists."
"Put before me their good deeds."
"There is none. William Hughes-Jones is the first of them that has
prayed. Are not the builders making a chamber for the accounts of their
disobedience?"
Immediately God thundered: the earth trembled and the stars shivered and
fled from their courses and struck against one another; and God stood
on the brim of the universe and stretched out a hand and a portion of a
star fell into it, and that is the portion which He hurled into the
garden of Hughes-Jones's house. On a sudden the revels ceased: the bread
of the feast was stone and the tea water, and the songs of the angels
were hushed, and the strings of the harps and viols were withered, and
the hammers were dough, and the mountains sank into Hell, and behold
Satan in the pulpit which was an iron cage.
The Prophets hurried into the Judgment Hall with questions, and lo God
was in a cloud, and He spoke out of the cloud.
"I am angry," He said, "that Welsh Nonconformists have not heard my
name. Who are the Welsh Nonconformists?" The Prophets were silent, and
God mourned: "My Word is the earth and I peopled the earth with my
spittle; and I appointed my Prophets to watch over my people, and the
watchers slept and my children strayed."
Thus too said the Lord: "That hour I devour my children who have
forsaken me, that hour I shall devour my Prophets."
"May be there is one righteous among us?" said Moses.
"You have all erred."
"May be there is one righteous among the Nonconformists," said Moses;
"will the just God destroy him?"
"The one righteous is humbled, and I have warned him to keep my
commandments."
"The sown seed brought forth a prayer," Moses pleaded; "will not the
just God wait for the harvest?"
"My Lord is just," Paul announced. "They who gather wickedness shall not
escape the judgment, nor shall the blind instructor be held blameless."
Moreover Paul said: "The Welsh Nonconformists have been informed of you
as is proved by the man who confessed his transgressions. It is a good
thing for me that I am not of the Prophets."
"I'll be your comfort, Paul," the Prophets murmured, "that you have done
this to our hurt." Abasing themselves, they tore their mantles and
howled; and God, piteous of their howlings, was constrained to say:
"Bring me the prayers of these people and I will forget your
remissness."