noble in bearing—­ how far exceeding in beauty all the sons of men!  His speech was music that thrilled to the heart,—­the wondrous glory of His eyes gave life to those who knelt and worshipped Him—­His touch was pardon—­His smile was peace!  From His own lips a store of wisdom was set down,—­and prophecies concerning the fate of His own teaching, which then He uttered, are only now, at this very day, being fulfilled.  Therefore we know the time has come—­” he broke off, and sighed deeply.

“The time has come for what?” demanded Alwyn eagerly.

“For certain secrets to be made known to the world which till now have been kept sacred,” returned Heliobas,—­“You must understand that the chief vow of the Fraternity of the Cross and Star is secrecy,—­a promise never to divulge the mysteries of God and Nature to those who are unfitted to receive such high instruction.  It is Christ’s own saying—­’A faithless and perverse generation asketh for a sign, and no sign shall be given.’  You surely are aware how, even in the simplest discoveries of material science, the world’s attitude is at first one of jeering incredulity,—­how much more so, then, in things which pertain solely to the spiritual side of existence!  But God will not be mocked,—­and it behooves us to think long, and pray much, before we unveil even one of the lesser mysteries to the eyes of the vulgar.  Christ knew the immutable condition of Free-Will,—­He knew that faith, humility, and obedience are the hardest of all hard virtues to the self-sufficient arrogance of man; and we learned from Him that His Gospel, simple though it is, would be denied, disputed, quarrelled over, shamefully distorted, and almost lost sight of in a multitude of ‘free’ opinions,—­that His life-giving Truth would be obscured and rendered incomprehensible by the wilful obstinacy of human arguments concerning it.  Christ has no part whatever in the distinctly human atrocities that have been perpetrated under cover of His Name,—­such as the Inquisition, the Wars of the Crusades, the slaughter of martyrs, and the degrading bitterness of sects; in all these things Christ’s teaching is entirely set aside and lost.  He knew how the proud of this world would misread His words —­that is why He came to men who for thousands of years in succession had steadily practised the qualities He most desired,—­ namely, faith, humility, and obedience,—­and finding them ready to carry out His will, He left with them the mystic secrets of His doctrine, which He forbade them to give to the multitude till men’s quarrels and disputations had called His very existence into doubt.  Then,—­through pure channels and by slow degrees—­we were to proclaim to the world His last message.”

Alwyn’s eyes rested on the speaker in reverent yet anxious inquiry.

“Surely”—­he said—­“you will begin to proclaim it now?”