e to him, telling him to prepare, that he had been
chosen, and that further signs would come to him. He fell on his knees
beside the bed and remained there in a trance until daylight. He had
heard the voice of God, he had seen His light, he had been chosen as
His servant. Some weeks later a second visitation came to him, similar
to the first, but telling him that at the last hour of the present year
God would come in His own person to save the world, and that he must
make this known to a few chosen spirits that they might prepare ...

The whole brotherhood then was at length justified; they alone, out of
all men in the world, had believed in the Second Coming of the Lord,
and so God had chosen them. He had no doubt at all about his visions at
this time. They seemed to him as real and sure as the daily traffic of
the streets and the monotonous progress of the clock.

Eagerly, with the confident resolution of a child, he told his news to
the leaders of the Chapel, Thurston, Miss Avies, and one or two others.
Then a special meeting of the Inside Saints was called and, in the
simplest language, he described exactly what had occurred. He did not
at first perceive the effect that his news had. Then, dimly, through
the mist of his prayers and ecstasies, he realised that his message had
created confusion. There was in the first place the question as to
whether the whole congregation should be told. He found that he could
not decide about this, and when he left the judgment to Thurston,
Thurston told him that, in his opinion, "the less that they knew about
it the better." It was then that the first suspicion came to him as to
whether some of the Saints "doubted." He questioned Thurston as to the
effect of this message upon the Saints. Thurston explained to him that
"many of them had been very troubled. They had not expected It to come
so soon." Thurston explained that they were, after all, only poor human
clay like the rest of mankind, and to prepare for a Second Coming in
general, something that might descend upon the world, say, in a hundred
years' time, was very different from a Judgment that might be expected,
definitely, in about three weeks. One or two of them, in fact, had left
the Chapel. Others begged for some clearer direction: "Give it them a
bit more clearly, Master. Tell 'em a few facts what the Lord God looked
like and 'ow He spoke and in what kind of way He was coming. Supposing
He wasn't to come after all ..."