At what was the man looking? Surely it was no narrow vision bounded by the bricks and mortar, the busy vista of the London Strand!
Then, in a flash, the journalist knew.
Those eyes saw no mortal vision, were not bounded by the material circumstance of place and time. They looked into the future.
It was thus that Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah looked when the word of the Lord came to him.
Unconsciously Hampson spoke a verse from Holy Writ:—
"Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth."
Then Joseph began to speak, and never had his friend heard a man speak in this fashion.
The lips moved very little. The fixed far-off light remained in the eyes, the face did not change with the word's as the face of an ordinary man does.
"I hear a voice; and the voice says to me, 'Thou therefore gird up thy loins and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.' The words, which seemed to come from a vast distance, though they were very keen, vibrant and clear, dropped in tone, and ceased for a moment. Then once more they began—
"And I see the woman Mary and the one that was with her. They are with me upon an hill-top. And they are as maids that have forgotten their ornaments, and as brides that have not remembered their attire. And below us I see great cities and busy markets, the movements of multitudes, and the coming and going of ships. And I see that the maid and I and those others who are with us upon the mountain pray to God. And God touches my mouth, and I go down from the hill and those that are with me, to root out, to pull down and destroy, and to throw down, to build and to plant."