Presently he became aware that the voluntary had ceased, and that a restlessness was sweeping over the great audience.  Arousing himself somewhat from his harrowing reveries, he looked at his watch and found that it was ten minutes past the time for the service to begin, and Dr. Fairfax had not yet entered the pulpit.

While the people were wondering what the cause of the delay might be, he appeared.

An unusual note of tenderness in the invocation prepared the auditors in some degree for what followed.

“Brethren,” he said, “it is recorded in Holy Writ that Jesus took a child and set it in the midst of them.  Just as truly has He set in our midst today a child, and for this reason the whole order of service shall be changed.  God helping me, I shall hide behind the cross, that the people may see Jesus only, and I shall present the way of salvation so simply that wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

“We are living in a rationalistic age, when by many the God of miracles is denied; when the incarnation of the Son of God is considered a fable, having its counterpart in nearly all religions; when a belief in a literal hell and a literal heaven is becoming obsolete; when the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, making it possible to escape the one and gain the other, is held as a relic of superstition; when the verbal inspiration of the Bible is ridiculed; and when character-building is rapidly superseding the belief in the necessity of the new birth.

“Perhaps I have not been sufficiently determined myself to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and have spoken too often upon popular themes.  Today I shall not speak upon the subject announced, ‘Applied Christianity the Remedy for Social Evils,’ but,” and he looked down upon Rosa to be sure that she understood, “’Heaven, or the Way to the Beautiful Land.’  Preparatory to what I may say, I shall read the last two chapters of Revelation.”

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth:  for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

“And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:  for the former things are passed away.

“And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.  And He said unto me, Write:  for these words are true and faithful.  And He said unto me, It is done.  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.  I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.  He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.  But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone:  which is the second death.