The seven years were fruitful years, since, shut up with G.o.d and His word, he had become almost the most remarkable spiritually-minded Bible student of his time.
The day came, at length, when once more he was strong enough to do public service, and though without a living, from the moment that he had preached his first sermon, after his recovery, he found himself in constant request on every hand. He lived in close communion with G.o.d, and his soul burned within him as he delivered--not an address, not a sermon, but the _message of G.o.d_. The music of the voluntary was filling all the church, while the offering was being taken. Then, as the last well-filled plate was piled on the step of the communion rail, the voluntary died away in a soft whisper. Amid a tense hush, he rose to give out the hymn before the sermon. Clear, bell-like, his voice rang out:
"When I survey the wondrous cross."
The hymn sung, he gave out his text: "Did not I choose you the twelve, and one of you _is_ a demon."
"You will note," he began "that I have changed the word devil to demon.
There is but one devil in the universe, but there are myriads of demons, fallen angels like their master, the Devil, only they were angels of lesser rank."
He paused for one moment, and his eagle eyes swept the sea of faces.
Then in quiet, calm, but incisive tones he asked:
"Who,--what, was Judas Iscariot? Was he _human_, was he man, as I am, as you are? or, was he a demon? Jesus Christ our Lord, who knew as G.o.d, as well as man, declared that Judas was a _demon_--a fallen angel."
The silence was awesome in its tenseness. Every eye was fixed on the preacher, necks were strained forward, lips were parted--the people held their breath.
Again that clear, rich bell-like voice rang out in the repeated question: "Who, I repeat, was Judas Iscariot? Was he a man, in the usual acceptance of the term, or was he a demon incarnated? What does the Bible say about him? In considering this I ask you each to put from your mind, as far as it is possible for you to do so, all preconceived ideas, all that you have been accustomed to think about this flame of evil in the story of Christ.
"And first let me say what my own feeling, my own strong personal conviction is regarding Judas Iscariot. I believe him to have been a demon incarnated by the power of the Devil, whose intent was to frustrate G.o.d"s plans. In all his foul work of destruction and confusion, the Devil, from the time of the Fall in Eden, has ever been busy counterfeiting all that G.o.d has wrought out for the salvation of the human race, and as the time approaches for his own utter defeat so the more cunning will his devices of evil become.
"In the foulness of his thoughts to frustrate G.o.d"s purposes of salvation, I believe that when he knew that the Christ had been born, that G.o.d had Himself become incarnate, so that He might deliver man--for we must never forget that "G.o.d was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself--that he, the Devil, incarnated one of his demons, who afterwards became known as Judas Iscariot, the Betrayer of Christ."
For one instant the preacher paused, for the awed and listening ma.s.s of people who had been literally holding their breath, were compelled to inbreathe, and the catch of breath was heard through all the place.
"To use a twentieth century expression," he went on, "I may seem to have "given myself away" by this statement of my own conviction. But I am not concerned with the effect, I am concerned only with a great and important truth, as it seems to me, and a truth which will, I believe, be curiously, fatefully emphasized in the days near to come, when our Lord shall have taken away His church at His coming in the air.
"Now let me invite your attention to the actual Scriptures which speak of Judas Iscariot. But before doing so let me acknowledge my indebtedness for the inceptive thought of all I have said, and shall say, to Dr. Joseph A. Seiss, of Philadelphia, in his wondrous lectures on "The Revelation."
"We will turn first again to my text, to the 6th of John, the 70th verse, "Did I not choose you the twelve, and one of you _is_ a devil--a _demon_? He spake of Judas Iscariot." The second text I want us to note is in John 17, verse 12, and again it is Jesus who makes the solemn declaration: "Those whom Thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the _Son of Perdition_." The third text I would draw your attention to is in the 25th verse of Acts 1. It is Peter who is speaking, at the time of the choosing of another as apostle in Judas"s place; he says: "Judas, by transgression, fell, that he might go _to his own place_.""
In spite of their intentness in the wondrous personality of the messenger, and the extraordinary character of his message, not a few found time to marvel at the facile ease and certainty of touch with which he handled his little pocket Bible, and turned to the desired places. As he finished reading the third pa.s.sage, and laid the open book down upon the desk, the old hush deepened upon the people.
"Link those three pa.s.sages together;" he went on, "and you will instantly see what I meant when I said just now, that I believe Judas Iscariot to have been an incarnated demon, and incarnated by the Devil for the one fell purpose of frustrating G.o.d"s designs for the World"s Salvation through Jesus Christ.
"There is not a single recorded good thought, word, or deed that ever Judas thought, said, or did. And do please remember that Christ was never once deceived by him, for in the 64th verse of that 6th of John, we read "For Jesus knew _from the beginning who_ they were that _believed not_, and _who should betray Him_." And knowing everything, he said of the Betrayer, "I have chosen--he is a demon." If our Lord had said "one of you _has_ a demon," the whole statement would have been different, for many, in Christ"s days, we find, were possessed by demons, and He, by His divine power cast out the demons. But in Judas we have something different, not a human man in whom a demon has taken up his abode, but a demon who has had a body given him in which to pa.s.s among men as a man.
"Christ"s statement that he was a "_Son of Perdition_," is equally d.a.m.ning as to the real nature of Judas Iscariot. He is called the "son of Simon," as regards the human side of his life, as Jesus was called "Joseph"s son,"--more especially _Mary"s son_.
"But, though, nominally, "Simon"s son," Judas Iscariot was ever "a Son of Perdition." And because he was this--"a demon," a Son of Perdition, Peter, at Pentecost time, speaking in the Holy Ghost, was able to say that he, Judas, "went to his own place." We need spend no time in any detailed arguments as to whether this "place" to which he went in the under-world, was Tartarus or elsewhere, it was "_his own place_," _the place of imprisoned demons_, the place where other demons who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation are reserved in chains." Neither Tartarus or h.e.l.l were ever "prepared" for lost _human_ souls, "but for demons, and, as a demon, Judas went to his _own_ place.""
He paused a moment. His tall, thin form became rigid in the intensity of his service. In the silence, that deepened, the ticking of the clock in the front of the gallery, could be heard plainly in every part of the building.
Slowly he bent his lithe form forward until he leaned far over the Reading Desk. Then stretching out his arm, the long index finger pointing forward, he said:
"Listen, friends! Receive this next part of the message, if you will, if you can. I believe that "The Man of Sin," "The Antichrist," when he shall be revealed, will be Judas re-incarnated.
"There can be no doubt, I think, but that any one studying Daniel"s description of the Anti-christ will realize that, in his _human_ personation, he will necessarily be a Jew, for otherwise, the Jews (who will have largely returned to their own land, and will have built their Temple, and resumed their Mosaic service,) would not accept him as their leader, and make their seven years" covenant with him.
"Now, beloved, my last word is a very solemn one. It is this, our Lord"s Return for His Bride, the Church, is very near,--"He is even at our doors." Any day, any hour he may return. We, here, may never reach the point of the "Benediction" at the _arranged_ close of this service, for Jesus may come and call up to Himself everyone of His own in this place. Then what of you here who are not His? For you, there will remain nothing but the horrors of the Tribulation, (should you seek and find G.o.d _after_ the Translation of the church.)
"Will you be among the Martyrs of the Tribulation, or of the final impenitent, rebels who shall be cast into the h.e.l.l reserved for the Devil, for Anti-christ, for the demons; or, blessed thought, will you here and now yield to Christ, and become the saved of the Lord?"
Amid the most intense hush, he added: "Somewhere, even as I have preached of him, and as you have listened, there is, I believe, a young man, of n.o.ble stature, exceedingly attractive, wealthy, fascinating,--bewitching, in fact, since "all the world will wonder after him"--yes, somewhere in the world, perhaps in this very city where we are now gathered, is the young man who, presently, when our Lord has come, when the Church, and the Holy Spirit are gone, will manifest himself as the Anti-christ. May G.o.d save everyone of us from _his_ reign, for Jesus Christ"s sake. Amen!"
A gasping cry of amazed wonder broke from the thousand or more throats.
They bowed, as one man, under the silent request of his spread hands, they heard the old, old "Benediction" as they had never heard it before: "May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of G.o.d, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit, all unite in leading us into the Peace of G.o.d which pa.s.seth all understanding, Amen."
Silent, awed, in many cases speechless, the great congregation pa.s.sed out of the several exits of the church. Among them was the woman we know as Judith Montmarte, and _her son_.
In spite of their pre-occupation, many of the outgoing congregation turned to gaze with wondering eyes upon the handsome young fellow who walked with such a regal air beside his mother, Judith Montmarte. Like Saul, in Israel, he stood a head and shoulders above the tallest of the crowd. And he was magnificently proportioned.
On the continent, and in New York and Chicago, Lucien Apleon, was well-known, but only in certain of the _English_ circles was he known.
Those who knew him, whether men or women, fairly idolized him, in spite of the impenetrable mystery that enveloped his birth.
For a full year Judith Montmarte had disappeared from the ken of the world. Where she went, what she did, what happened to her, none ever knew.
On her re-appearance in her Hungarian home, she called herself Madame Apleon, and her child was Lucien Apleon. No one ever heard of a husband, no one knew the history of that year of disappearance.
Lucien Apleon was now about twenty-five years of age, but with the maturity of face and character of a much older man. He was accounted, by all who knew him, to be the most accomplished man in _everything_, that the world had ever known. The greatest scientists were babes before him. As artist, sculptor, poet, musician, he could not be approached by any living being. And there appeared an almost _creative_ power in all he did, since works of every kind of art _grew_ under his hand.
Among those who had been in that service, and who turned to look at Lucien Apleon, was Ralph Bastin. It was his last day in London, previous to those years of wandering recorded in "The Twinkling of an Eye."
Often during those years of adventurous wanderings the memory of Ralph Bastin had recalled that wonderful service. One special moment of its recall was during that fateful, sacrificial cave scene in that Carribean Island.
CHAPTER II.
A "SUPER-MAN."
London was still in its first throes of wonder, speculation, and, in some cases, fearsome dread, at the ever increasing discovery that a number of its citizens had mysteriously disappeared.
"And the most curious part of the whole affair," a prominent London philanthropist had remarked to an informal gathering of the Committee of one of the Great Societies, "is this, that whether we look at the gaps in our own committee, or of any other committee, or of any church--as far as I have been able to gather, the story is the same, the missing people are in almost every case those whom, when they were with us, were least understood by us."
Some such thought had been filling the mind of Ralph Bastin, as he sat in his Editor"s chair in the office of the "Courier." Allied to this thought there came another--an almost necessary corollary of the first--namely the new atmosphere of evil, of lawlessness, of wantonness that pervaded the city.
With a jerk, his mind darted backward over the years to that remarkable sermon on Judas and the Antichrist.
"It is true, too true," he murmured, ""the mystery of iniquity" that has long been working undermining the foundations of all true social and religious safety and solidity, is now to be openly manifested and perfected. The real Christians, the Church of G.o.d, which is the Bride of Christ, has been silently, secretly caught up to her Lord in the air. She was "the salt of the earth," she kept it from the open putrefaction that has already, now, begun to work. Then, too, that wondrous, silent, but mighty influence of restraint upon evil.--The Holy Spirit, Himself, has left the earth, and now, what? All restraint gone, the world everywhere open to believe the Antichrist lie, the delusion. The whole tendency of the teaching, from a myriad pulpits, during the last few years, has been to prepare the world to receive the Devil"s lie."
For a moment or two he sat in deep thought. Suddenly glancing at the clock, he murmured:
"I wonder what the other papers are saying this evening."
He rang up his messenger boy on his office phone. The lad came promptly. Bastin handed him half-a-crown, saying: