must
also note what happened to my love when she was eighteen, which I here
set down in her own words:--'I dreamt that the numerals 1685 were
written in golden ciphers on the heaven; on my right I saw a man who
pointed to the numbers and said to me, "See at that time will great
things happen, and somewhat shall be revealed unto you." Now, it was in
this year, 1685, that the great persecution took place in France, and
in the same year was the blessed millennial kingdom of the Apocalypse
revealed to me and my dear husband, at the same hour; and, without one
knowing of the other, did both our treatises so coincide, that we were
ourselves amazed at it We were therefore, by divine guidance, convinced
of the truth of what we had discovered in Holy Scripture concerning
the kingdom of our King. And later we imparted to others in all
simplicity our discovery, not caring when learned and unlearned alike
gainsaid it.'"

Here we end the narrative of Petersen. They passed the first years of
their marriage in peace. He had once accidentally placed his thumb on
the passage--"Sarah shall bear a son;" the year following he was made
happy by Johanna Eleonora bringing a son into the world, who was,
indeed, small at his birth, but who shortly afterwards raised his head
in a wonderful way out of his little bed and gave other delightful
signs that he would become something remarkable and pleasing in the
sight of the Lord. He did actually become, later, a Royal Russian
Councillor, and was able to protect his dear parents when the
millennial kingdom made their life full of cares; for, alas! it was not
granted to them to keep the great light which had been kindled at the
same time in both, under a bushel. It would have been better for their
earthly comfort had they done so.

What the worthy couple learned from the Revelation, combined with
numerous passages from the Bible--in reading which they were assisted
by earnest prayer, followed by divine inspiration--was remarkable. The
Millennium was not already come, but was approaching. It was to begin,
at no very distant time, by the return of Christ on earth; when this
should take place, a portion of the dead would rise; in great periods
of thousands of years, the whole human race, living and dead, were to
attain salvation; the Calvinists and Lutherans were to be united, and
all Jews and heathen converted; then all even the worst sinners would
be redeemed from hell; and, last of all, the devil h