Chapter XIV.

The fall of Babylon.

And I looked and lo! Bill's vision and his seven stars were seen over Mount Zion, where stood 144,000 boy scouts with minds tender and open, earnestly gazing thereon.

2. And the cry was for a thing as it is; yea, the spirit of truth, where figures, similes, lies, and miracles were but wind, and confusion, and they said war was necessary to thin the growth, but Bill said he would net them and throw the bad away. And true it was beneath the rule of men entirely great the pen is mightier than the sword, and for his new heaven he sought for souls of three years old, and led them gently into soul birth schools, and poured into their young ears a psychological penetration of motives and principles, and thoughts and actions of the best, and on reaching thirty the desire for war was chastened. He saw children had no soul until their earthly experience and learning had taught them the sign such as language supplies, and with which only they could and did reason.

3. And they sung as it were a new song, saying: What know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you which you have of God, and ye are not your own. For it is not ye that speak, but the spirit of your Father which speaketh in you, and of his sayings I take freely.

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4. They were indeed the first fruits unto the spirit of truth, and they looked for an architect to raise them an edifice, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, and men saw the superstructure did but fulfil all prophecy.

5. And in their mouth was found pure language, and their reflex thought was pleasing unto God, whose right arm was the dictum of Aristotle, which down all these ages had said:—Anything whatever that is predicated of a whole class, under which class something else is contained, may be predicated of that which is so contained. The burden is not great, and come it must, man's syllogistic labor shall be within truth and righteousness, and tares, weeds, and noxious growths shall be rooted out.

6. And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people, and he named the new sect Verbumites, and their world wide mission was one adequate and one universal common term, and of them a great conversancy.

7. And they cried with a loud voice: Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come, and worship hin that made heaven and earth and the sea, and the fountains of vaters and the cerebral of man.

8. And there followed another angel, saying: Babylon is filien; is fallen: that great city of creeds, sects, and denominations, wherein all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and each others' throats they did cut.

9. And the third angel followed them, saying, with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand,

10. The same shall be stricken by a vile conscience, seen of all men, and amongst them it shall be said, God hath lamed him.

11. And those fed on lies and delusions, and those who live on bread alone, have no rest day or night from their torment, and in their faith and in their church they have no pleasure. Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, for my sign and my right arm and my naming are such as my language doth supply, and thou hast revealed it unto man and his seven senses, and their attendant word.

12. And those saturating their minds with obsolete jargon shall have no truth in them, nor hath their notions any legs to stand upon, and those who receive my classical and scientific truths, they have the victory, and what I say I cannot withhold, for they are things as they are, and are embraced in my mind and have become a part of it.

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13. And I heard a voice from heaven saying: Blessed are they that receive example and experience, and education and energy, and endowment and enlargement, and environment of the beast; yea, saith the spirit, and on passing out, worn and frail, their works do follow them.

14. And I looked and behold a mere man with a new truth, spoken not in parables nor side-showed with miracles, but its strength and its authority was great, and in his right hand was a sharp sickle.

15. And he came not in clouds nor with a great shout, nor with tens of thousands, but meekly searching and groping under man's laws of thought was it found, and he cried mightily, Thrust in thy sickle and reap, for pests and degenerates do but encumber the earth.

16. And standing on solid ground he thrust in his sickle, and the earth was reaped. And so it is done, and shall turn to my salvation through your prayers, and the supply of the true middle term.

17. And another came out of the temple whose fan is in his right hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire, and nations shall know that God is a consuming fire of terse truth, and the goal is perfectness.

18. And one came from the altar with a tongue of flame, and cried, Thrust in thy sharp sickle and gather hoofs, horns, and sticks, whose intelligence would have no science, and where the possession of a cultivated mind was a sin against their belief.

19. And the angel thrust in his sickle and gathered them to be smitten by the wrath of God, for the triumph of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment. He shall perish for ever, like unto his own dung.

20. And nations, peoples, and tongues with great unrest drifted towards war, and sought to destroy that which hath been estab lished for ever.