“Comrades of the Urim! Awake and arise! The signs are propitious! It hath ever been so, even in the days of the patriarchs and prophets. The chosen and righteous call out burning enmity, which is made known through ghostly and malignant shapes. We must exor[pg 89]cise the unhallowed Phantom which would thrust itself into our Covenant and Tradition. Brothers of the Inner Circle! we incarnated the spirit of prophecy, and must needs look upon the ghostly symbolic visions of warfare. They crowd themselves upon us as mystical revealers of those who wickedly betray the doctrine of Israel. Only by glimpses of such shades of Tophet could we be forewarned. They are sent to fire us with a holy zeal in overcoming the false-hearted. The vengeance of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob waxes against all who burn strange fire upon our sacred altars; and we must needs have signs of their abomination brought before our eyes.”
The comrades of Saulus were reassured by his eloquence, and his interpretation found favor.
“Victor Serenus is the arch adversary,” cried one.
“The hand that smiteth him shall be blessed,” added another.
“He deceiveth the disciples of the Rabban, and is not worthy to live,” cried a third, and there was a mingling of voices.
“Woe to Serenus!”
“Spoil his house!”
“To Gehenna with him!”
Saulus waved his hand for silence, and then said, with a violent gesture,—
“Comrades of the Urim! If ye will, ye may smite him before the cock-crowing, for the Lord regardeth him not.”