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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 79

Chapter XI. — The two witnesses prophesy, and the result thereof

Chapter XI.

The two witnesses prophesy, and the result thereof.

And in the book was a rod which did measure the temple of God and man's cerebral, his rhetoric and his tools of trade; all which did comprise that instrument of instruments with which we do reason.

2. And all things breathing without common terms had no living soul worthy of the name; they had but instinct and muscle and motion and brain cell capacity, like unto the yellow dog drawing near unto a fire on a cold and frosty morning.

3. Power was given them that they should prophesy three years and a-half in sackcloth, whilst thinking how best to break down dark defences and barriers of brass, and in their thinking they looked back, judging the quick and the dead. There was Moses, who urged obedience to his laws by earthly hopes and fears where no after death reward was promised, and Job in his deep meditation never did allude to a future state. It was the vanity of gorgeous egotism. Little men with big ideas got from their third heaven. Not satisfied with the immortality seen in their seed, breed, and generation, in which was visible the feature, page 39 disposition, and the character of their offspring, but like unto spoiled children they craved for an independent existence away from their natural remains near a resplendant throne, where for all time they would join in songs of praise, and they elected not to have children lest the front seats were few. Pass the dram and damn the thought, and we became fudded, and on hearing about purgatory, transubstantiation, and the adoration of the Virgin Mary, there was of course a row, where all were jailed but his two anointed ones, and thus they did present unto a world of sham, things as they are, and Bill, like unto John, named them truly. Bill loved John and John loved Bill. John had tarried, was wandering, and Bill sought John, who came his way, and John knew well that Bill loved his immortal poem. It did outline the man and the hour, yet Bill could not see it as he wished. Not by rote but by heart he searched the poem, and the promise there twice given was his, and which blessing was the psychological knowledge of the world's truth, and which did lead upwards to the threshold of the true word of God. But Bill could not unravel until he met John, and John, loving Bill, the vision was made clear unto him. Then was John's mission ended, and he wandered from Bill whilst snow lay deep upon the ground. Bill followed his footsteps on to St. Croix Lake, far from the haunts of men, and on a lonely islet he found John, and Bill, loving John, performed that last office, and did remove his finger ring, and with loving hands laid him to rest. Bill would not wear John's ring, but gave it unto that other, the seventh angel, who traced thereon those seven categories found in substance and attribute, and in loving remembrance of John, that scene, that day and that call, the ring he wore.

4. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth, and in their weakness they appeal for support to man's enlarged learning, his modern discoveries, and his illuminated conscience, all which are the voice of God.

5. And if any man will hurt them he shall come against a cold fact that will not budge, for they speak of things to come and things which cannot be shaken. Knowing well that truth shall prevail, they have dared to assert concerning the nature of the reasonable soul that it is mortal, and in this they agree with Heredotus, the oldest historian, when he said the Egyptians were the first to assert that the soul was immortal, and in proof thereof they did preserve cats, mummies, and beetles.

6. These two have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy, and which power was not sought, for they disliked the responsibility, and of the plagues they made a, great mess.

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7. And when they shall have finished their testimony, and the mission to which they are called, which was to expose all those monstrous opinions about immortal souls, supported only by the authority of metaphor and church dogma and earthly creed; then woe is me these two witnesses shall die unhonoured, as leaves do fall and soldiers too.

8. And since the sky-pilot will decline that last office, their dead bodies will lie unburied.

9. After three days and a-half, becoming high they will stink and evaporate, and theological nostrils shall give them wide berth.

10. And they that dwell on the earth shall rejoice at their demise, and shout drinks one with the other, because these two witnesses had cut the cord that flew their kite, and did torment them that dwelt upon the earth, and to grey-funk were they deadly, and in their indignation at a noxious growth of weedy ideals and vexatious pinpricks, they chopped down their only fruit tree, rather than have it registered, and paid off the gardener because of the claims that might arise through giving him a day's work, and the poor borrower paid premiums to protect a mortgage against a loss that never did arise, and Bill cried, Not for these things was government created.

11. And upon a close inspection of their written remains men did say God's word hath not returned to Him void, but hath accomplished that whereto it was sent.

12. Their enemies were forced to admit that middle terms came after a movement of muscle and motion, and in the new train of thought they did feel uneasy, for up till then the fear of hell had kept them in order.

13. And the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the spirit found in well deduced and syllogistic truth, which in all things was made more perfect by their having an absolute conversancy with the dictionary of man.

14. The second woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly, and we beheld the world merging into a great unity, and in their hidden manna and its working tools they were seen moving forward to greater betterment.

15. And the seventh angel kept on thinking, whilst his quickener did grope amongst the seven spirits of God, which were substance, quantity, quality, relation, space, time and suffering (a good deal of the latter), and men saw the thoughts in print, and there were great voices in heaven, saying: The kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and his written testimony shall reign in the mind of man for ever and ever.

16. And none till then had conceived that the human eye was both a looker on and a groper after middle terms, yet some had said the eye looking at an object did not judge its distance, showing God's small things come gradually.

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17 And saying: We give Thee thanks, O Lord, God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come, because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned. And Thou givest unto all a quickening spirit of muscle and motion to do Thy work for good and for evil, and without this activity there was no intelligence. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which latter is but my instrument of instruments, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world, and the quality of your reasoning in any case must depend upon your being able correctly, clearly, and promptly to abstract from the subject in question that which may furnish the middle term suitable to the occasion, and in this universal act have we the right arm of the Lord.

18. And the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, as also the great day of judgment, wherein ignorance, superstition, and bigotry shall be removed, and man's rising wrath shall destroy those who destroy this earth.

19. And the temple of God was laid bare in the cerebral of man, and it was seen and considered that those seven obscure and puny churches in Asia were but figures of a greater temple and the seven golden candlesticks were those by Bill described and upon the nations meditating upon the ark of his testament there were lightnings and voices and thunderings, and a great earthquake, giving unto one large city a double event of quake and fire.