ssengers it would have penetrated even to the
streets. The words we caught were such as these--

--'If they hear thee not, O Lord, nor reverence thy messengers, but deny
thee and turn upon those whom thou sendest the lip of scorn and the eye
of pride, and will none of their teachings, and so do despite to the
spirit of thy grace, and crucify the Lord afresh, then do thou, O Lord,
come upon them as once upon the cities of the plain in the times of
thine anger. Let fire from Heaven consume them. Let the earth yawn and
swallow them up. Tear up the foundations of this modern Babylon; level
to the earth her proud walls; and let her stand for a reproach, and a
hissing, and a scorn; through all generations; so that men shall say as
they pass by, lo! the fate of them that held to their idols rather than
serve the living God; their proud palaces are now dwellings of dragons,
and over her ruins the trees of the forest are now spreading their
branches. But yet, O Lord, may this never be; but may a way of escape be
made for them through thy mercy. And to this end may we thy servants, to
whom thou hast given the sword of the spirit, gird it upon our sides,
lift up our voices and spare not, day and night, morning and evening, in
the public place, and at the corners of the streets; in all places, and
in every presence, proclaiming the good news of salvation. Let not
cowardice seal our lips. Whether before gentile or jew, emperor or
slave, may we speak as becomes the Lord's anointed. Warm the hearts of
the cold and dead; put fire into them; fire from thine own altar. The
world, O Lord, and its honors and vanities, seduce thine own servants
from thee. They are afraid, they are cold, they are dead, and the enemy
lifts himself up and triumphs. For this we would mourn and lament. Give
us, O Lord, the courage and the zeal of thine early apostles and
teachers so that no fear of tortures and death may make us traitors to
Christ and thee.'

It was a long time that he went on in this strain, inveighing, with heat
and violence, against all who withdrew their hand from the work, or
abated their zeal. When he had ceased, and we stood waiting to judge
whether the service were wholly ended, the voices of the whole family
apparently, were joined together in a hymn of praise--Macer's now more
gentle and subdued, as if to hear himself the tones of the children and
of his wife who accompanied him. The burden of the hymn was also a
prayer for a spirit o