Chapter XII.

Of the woman clothed with the sun.

And there appeared a plain north country woman, whon the nations had longed for in the year of our Lord 1844, but they were four years out, for in 1848 the moon was seen under her feet, and by the spirit's guidance she was endued.

2. And being with child, cried travailing in birth, and there came a frail seven months child.

3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven, which is but on earth, and behold a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads, full of fallacy, and he had an ambiguous middle, and was drunk with wild imaginings, and a mouth full of glossary, which did adorn and swell his confession of faith.

page 42

4. And religion begat bitterness, and bitterness begat fright fulness, and mailed fists were ungloved and swords were rattled, and the beast did cast to the earth the third part of the stars of heaven, and the dragon stood before the woman to devour her child, for doxology had dreamt it was dangerous.

5. In spite of wind and weather, and the accidental predicaments of a very bad boy, the child grew, and nations saw it not, nor did they consider, but unto them a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful, counseller, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the prince of peace, and without fear or favour he shall turn their minds from confusion to a true conception of the Kingdom of God.

6. And from Den of Dalry the woman fled to her sheltering home near unto the seven roads of Highfield, where in peace she had a place prepared.

7. Where parental care and kindness warred against ignorance and outrage, and where superstition and imagination were kept within bounds, and did but deal with things as they are, which is truth.

8. And great Babylon being named prevailed not, nor was space found for them on earth any more.

9. And that old serpent the devil, which deceiveth the whole world, was by strict logical analysis cast down, and his angels with him.

10. And I heard a voice on earth, saying: Now is come salvation and strength, and the Kingdom of God and the power of a logical mind, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night, and against Jacob they thought to prevail with their abstract notions, unbridled imaginations, false conceptions, and fallacious reasoning, even thinking they had a living soul without the sign such as language supplies.

11. And they overcame them by the blood of Bill and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.

12. Therefore rejoice ye seekers of truth, and woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea, for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, for he knoweth he hath been by them most truly named.

13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which did plant on earth a root out of dry ground.

page 43

14. And to her were given two wings of a great eagle, hat she might fly from her nest to her safe refuge of rest, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, having fore of them, and where she did mother those promised four carpeters to cast out the horns of the gentiles.

15. And it was said no good thing can came out of the Jen, but come and see. Who is like unto them from ocean to ocan, and who can give man such another word of God.

16. Be silent, O all flesh before the Lord: for he is raise up out of his holy habitation, and listen to his two anointed mes that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

17. Bigotry and superstition were wroth at new things, and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting memory and some to shame and everlasing contempt. Amongst the former were Paine, Hume, Gibbon and Coleridge, for with reasonable mind they did say that testimony was more likely to be false than a miracle true; and amongst the latter were those that would not reason, and those that would believe in a lie. And arrayed against his witnesses were men eminent in the science of mind, who did regard with jeabusy those who brought to light things unknown, and which did pronise to supersede that which they had learned and taught and practsed. Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away the comforter will not come into you, but if I depart I will send him unto you, and come he hath, saying: God is Logos, the word and expression of man and every thing that can be said. And within his kingdom there was power and glory and truth and righteousness; and within it Abraham saw God and walked with him, and Aristotle classified his right arm into terms, propositions, and syllogisms, and with categories ten he did adorn him, and Coppleston and Whately did also glorify their Maker, saying: Without the common terms of language man had no soul worth saving. And at last came those two hurdy wild olive trees, who had the temerity to declare that man's perishing senses were in number seven, and the word did but respond to their quickening; which was God's mighty truth, and it shall reign, and human pests shall be rooted out from this their first and last home.