"Have you come to harm us?"
"Not in the least."
The chief in a high state of excitement ordered that I should be unbound.
I smiled and said that I would spare them that trouble. I snapped the bands with such ease that a new fear possessed all of those around me.
I then gave them positive a.s.surance that I would harm no one and urged that all should be silent as I wished to speak a few words to them.
Never before had I a more attentive audience. I addressed them in a natural manner, informing them that I desired to become familiar with a few of their forms and customs of life. I then proceeded to give them a description of the world whence I had come. My audience became enthusiastic and I decided to cease speaking.
The chief, although greatly agitated, still kept his hand on the throttle of the occasion. He waved the surging crowd back, demanded order and at once sent his arrowed questions at me again.
"Are you not a G.o.d?" cried he.
"I am only human."
"How could you have such power as to reach our world?"
"That I cannot explain."
"How many people live on your world?"
"One and one-half billion," I answered.
"Are they all pure-minded?"
I answered that I was pained to inform them that many of our inhabitants are wicked.
My listeners were still incredulous as to my ident.i.ty. They were positive that I was a visiting spirit on a mission of evil or good, and they urged that I should disclose the purpose of my commission.
I re-affirmed my past utterances and, turning to the chief more directly, I informed him that he would see me no more. Then, without pausing another moment, I vanished. As I went, I looked backward to see the mystified countenances of all who were in the room, and then proceeded to visit the surrounding city to examine the system under which it is governed.
I found that the bulk of the trade is controlled by the city, one cla.s.s of goods being kept at one place in suitable store houses. The city owns a full line of vehicles resembling our automobiles. These are very s.p.a.cious. Each one is supplied with certain lines of merchandise and pa.s.ses over an unalterable rail route at its own fixed period.
Thus all parts of the city are reached with the necessaries of life.
Those who prefer can go to the trade centers, but no special orders are delivered except by the regular cars and at the regular time.
For instance, one can go to the trade centers for meats and vegetables, and purchase what he wishes or give his order. At the time corresponding to six o"clock of our time in the morning the meat and vegetable cars start on their respective routes, while the trade centers are open for personal callers. Marketing goes on at the market center while the cars are selling throughout the city. At nine o"clock the delivery cars leave the trade centers.
Similar to the manner of our world, each home is numbered in such a way that no two houses have the same designation. By this arrangement the delivery of goods is facilitated.
Everything in this busy metropolis goes like clock work, and everybody knows the schedule, which is simple enough to be understood almost at a glance.
All the trade centers lie along the freight and pa.s.senger railroad. This saves a tremendous amount of labor, for the goods are all transferred directly from the cars to the store-houses.
There is no Fire Department, for there is no need of one. It appears that only a few worlds in the universe use inflammable materials for structural purposes, and we are one of them.
There is a Finance Department and a Law Department, although I cannot give s.p.a.ce for their description.
The Sanitary and Police Departments are under systems absolutely different from any that are known in our world. Their sanitary methods are no more effective than ours, perhaps less so. But the Police Department is greatly superior. This is largely due to the fact that this city has a department gloriously ahead of any city in which I have ever lived. This department is called the Moral Department. It is managed by twenty-one men and women, one-third of whom are selected annually from a list of nominees.
Each church, meeting certain requirements, is ent.i.tled to make one nomination. The seven of these nominees receiving the largest number of votes are elected for three years.
This Moral Department is no mincing and begging inst.i.tution. It has, at its disposal, the entire military battery. No mayor holds a whip handle over it. I must confess I was happy as I witnessed the blessed effect of this Moral Department. All evil is not extirpated, neither is all lawlessness overcome, but there is no brazen iniquity, no public immorality and heartless brutality such as is seen on every hand in one of our larger munic.i.p.alities.
CHAPTER XII.
A World Enjoying Its Millennium.
What expansive views of creation were afforded me in my universal journey! I saw all conceivable types of human life, many of which I alone could never have conceived.
With a happy soul I alighted on another world in the solar system of Dubhe where sin had been banished, and the believers, or children of G.o.d, were pa.s.sing through a period of time which we would call the Millennium.
A wide contrast was now presented to my view. I had seen world after world in the tribulation of sin. Now I had come to one under the sway of righteousness, and I wish that I had power to describe what I saw and experienced.
I suddenly thought of the Queen of Sheba, who, upon seeing the greatness of Solomon"s wisdom, exclaimed, "Behold, the half was not told me." I had often imagined what the condition of our world would be when it smiles under the light of the Millennium, but I minimized the glory that is yet to come to us, judging by what I saw on this delightfully charming planet. I have no a.s.surance, however, that the coming Millennium of our world will be altogether similar to the one I saw.
This glorious Millennium was ushered in about six hundred years ago, and I readily learned the general particulars of its commencement. The world had been very wicked prior to the dawn of this new age. The majority of the people disregarded all spiritual truths, causing the darkness of sin to hang like a heavy pall over the nations of this planet.
There were earnest devotees who lived in the light and love of G.o.d, and who preached and pleaded with the thoughtless and the indifferent.
Notwithstanding all the efforts put forth on the part of the righteous, the generations of this distant world became more and more wicked until the Millennial dawn.
In the fullness of time the Millennium was ushered in by the appearance of the chief angel who came with several hundred thousand attending spirits. At the approach of these celestial regiments the atmosphere far above the planet was darkened by ominous clouds through which the approaching legions shone with unearthly brightness. All this occurred in the twinkling of an eye, even before the busy millions could look upward. Then the chief angel and his magnificent host circled in the air, singing the resurrection song, which was augmented by ten thousand trumpeters, while the forked and sheet lightnings flashed in unison with the imposing waves of music, and heavy thunders contributed the ba.s.s intonations.
The celestial choir continued during one revolution of the planet. The vast throng sang in the air as the planet revolved on its axis. As each section of the globe came beneath the long extended line of melodious angels, the marvelous change took place for that section. The sleeping saints came forth from their graves and, with the living saints, were caught up into the air. This continued until this most eventful day was finished.
The scenes that occurred with the unG.o.dly during this awful day beggar all description, so much so that I shall not attempt to describe the remorseful wails of horror that rent the air, only to be drowned by the ever-singing choir. It was the day of triumph for the saints, and their ears were not disturbed by the cries of terror, nor were their hearts distracted by the opening of the earth to receive the wicked.
As the saints were caught up, the wicked fell into pits and have not been seen since. The flames that issued from the rending globe set everything on fire. Who can select language sufficiently graphic to portray such a lurid dissolution of a planet, and the gathering of the faithful, quick and dead?
Thus was this large world purified by fire while the saints were gloriously enraptured. After the fury of this burning was pa.s.sed, the great Creator of the universe made a new world whereon righteousness dwelled.
The saints became the possessors and rulers of this whole sphere, living in joy and peace unprecedented. It has been the happiest six hundred years since the beginning of this planet. How long this period will continue no one seems to know, and but few are conjecturing, for each soul is completely happy and congenially employed.
The time will come, however, when this blissful period will be at an end, only to give way to a state of existence infinitely greater and more glorious, which in our language would be called Heaven.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Beginning of the Millennium.]
I will briefly describe a few characteristics of this Millennial life as I saw it and as it is now existing.
1. The saints are living in spiritual bodies. They are not c.u.mbered with a fleshy body, and are capable of traveling through the air at a speed far beyond that attained by the swiftest winged creature of any world in the whole universe.
Their spiritual bodies are highly organized and sensitive to a fine degree. At will they are capable of rendering themselves visible or invisible, as we comprehend these terms.