Davis tried to wriggle from his questioner"s too strenuous grip.
"Let me go, Pug--let me go!"
"What for? What"s wrong? Who"s been doing something to yer?"
Mr. Davis made a movement of his head towards the Stranger. He spoke in a husky whisper.
"That bloke--over there."
The big man dragged the unwilling Mr. Davis forward.
"What"s my friend been doing to you, and what have you been doing to him?"
There was the usual adjectival torrent. The Stranger replied to the inquiry with another.
"Why are you so unclean of mouth? Is it because you are unclean of heart, or because you do not know what the things are which you utter?"
The retorted question seemed to take the big man aback. His manner became still more bl.u.s.terous:
"I don"t want none of your lip, and I won"t have any, and you can take that from me! I don"t know what kind of a Gospel-pitcher you are; but if you think because preaching"s your lay that you can come it over me, I"ll just show you can"t by knocking the head right off yer."
"What big things the little say!"
The retort seemed to goad Mr. Davis"s friend to a state of considerable excitement.
"Little, am I? I"ll show you! I"ll learn you! I"ll give you a lesson free gratis, and for nothing now, right straight off." He began to tear off his cap and coat. "Here, some of you chaps, catch hold while I"m a-showing him!" As he turned up his shirtsleeves, he addressed the crowd which had gathered: "These blokes come to us, and because we"re poor they think they can treat us as if we was dirt, and come the pa and ma game over us as if we was a lot of kids. I"ve had enough of it--in fact, I"ve had too much. For the future I mean to set about every one of them as tries to come it over me. Now, then, my bloke, put up your dooks or eat your words. Don"t think you"re going to get out of it by standing still, because if you don"t beg pardon for what you said to me just now I"ll----"
The man, who was by profession a pugilist, advanced towards the Stranger in professional style. The Stranger raised His right hand.
"Stay! and let your arm be withered. Better lose your arm than all that you have."
Before the eyes of those who were standing by the man"s arm began to dwindle till there was nothing protruding from the shirtsleeve which he had rolled up to his shoulder but a withered stump. The man stood as if rooted to the ground, the expression of his countenance so changed as to amount to complete transfiguration. The crowd was still until a voice inquired of the Stranger:
"Who are you?"
The Stranger pointed to the man whose arm was withered.
"Can you not see? The world still looks for a sign."
There were murmurs among the people.
"He"s a conjurer!"
"The bloke"s a mesmerist, that"s what he is!"
"He"s one of those hanky-panky coves!"
"I am none of these things. I come from a city not built of hands to this city of man"s glory and his shame to bring to you a message--no new thing, but that old one which the world has forgotten."
"What"s the message, Guv"nor?"
"Those who see Me and know Me will know what is My message; those who know Me not, neither will they know My message."
Mr. Cooke fell on his knees on the pavement.
"Oh, Guv"nor, what shall I do?"
"Cease to weep; there are more than enough tears already."
"I"m only a silly fool, Guv"nor; tell me what I ought to do."
"Do well; be clean; judge no one."
A woman came hurrying through the crowd. It was Mrs. Davis. At sight of her husband she burst into exclamations:
"Oh, Tommy, have you p.a.w.ned them?"
"No, Matilda, I haven"t, and I"m not going to, neither."
"Thank G.o.d!"
She threw her arms about her husband"s neck and kissed him.
"That is good hearing," said the Stranger.
The people"s attention had been diverted by Mrs. Davis"s appearance.
When they turned again to look for the Stranger He was gone.
CHAPTER III
THE WORDS OF THE PREACHER
"They say that the Jews do not look forward to the rebuilding of their Holy City of Jerusalem, to their return to the Promised Land.
They say that we Christians do not look forward to the Second Coming of Christ. As to the indictment against the Chosen People, we will not p.r.o.nounce: we are not Jews. But as to the charge against us Christians, there we are on firmer ground. We can speak, and we must.
My answer is, It"s a lie. We do look forward to His Second Coming. We watch and wait for it. It is the subject of our constant prayers. We have His promise, in words which cannot fail. The whole fabric of our faith is built upon our a.s.surance of His return. If the delay seems long, it is because, in His sight, a thousand years are as a day. Who are we to time His movements, and fix the hour of His coming so that it may fall in with our convenience? We know that He will come, in His own time, in His own way. He will forgive us if we strain our eyes eastward, watching for the first rays of the dawn to gild the mountains and the plains, and herald the glory of His advent. But beyond that His will, not ours, be done. We know, O Lord Christ, Thou wilt return when it seems well in Thy sight."
The Rev. Philip Evans was a short, somewhat st.u.r.dily built man, who was a little too heavy for his height. His dress was, to all intents and purposes, that of a layman, though something about the colour and cut of the several garments suggested the dissenting minister of a certain modern type. He was a hairy man; his brown hair, beard, and whiskers were just beginning to be touched with gray. He wore spectacles, big round gla.s.ses, set in bright steel frames. He had a trick of s.n.a.t.c.hing at them with his left hand every now and then, as if to twitch them straight upon his nose. He was not an orator, but was something of a rhetorician. He had the gift of the gab, and the present-day knack of treating what are supposed to be sacred subjects in secular fashion--of "bringing them down," as he himself described it, "to the intelligence" of his hearers, apparently unconscious of the truth that what he supposed to be their standard of intelligence was, in fact, his own.
There was about his manner, methods, gestures, voice, a species of nervous force, the product of restlessness rather than vitality, which attracted the sort of persons to whom he specially appealed, when they had nothing better to do, and held them, if not so firmly as the music-hall and theatrical performances which they preferentially patronised, still, with a sufficient share of interest. The band and the choir had something to do with the success which attended his labours. But, after all, these were merely side-shows. Indubitably the chief attraction was the man himself, and the air of brightness and "go" which his personality lent to the proceedings. One never knew what would be the next thing he would say or do.
That Sunday evening the great hall was thronged. It nearly always was. In the great thoroughfare without the people pa.s.sed continually to and fro, a motley crowd, mostly in pursuit of mischief. All sorts and conditions of persons, as they neared the entrance, would come in, if only to rest for a few minutes, and listen by the way, and look on. There was a constant coming and going. Philip Evans was one of the sights of town, not the least of its notorieties; and those very individuals against whom his diatribes were princ.i.p.ally directed found, upon occasion, a moderate degree of entertainment in listening to examples of his comminatory thunders.
The subject of his evening"s discourse had been announced as "The Second Coming: Is it Fact or Dream?" He had chosen as his text the eleventh verse of the third chapter of St. John"s Revelation: "Behold, I come quickly; hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." He had pointed out to his audience that these words were full of suggestion, even apart from their context; pre-eminently so in connection with it. They had in them, he maintained, Christ"s own promise that He would return to the world in which He had endured so much disappointment and suffering, such ignominy and such shame.
He supported his a.s.sertion by the usual cross references to Biblical pa.s.sages, construing them to suit his arguments by the dogmatic methods with which custom has made us familiar.