Zuriel regarded him more compassionately than ever, with a penetrating, mournful expression in his serious dark eyes.
"Alas, alas, my son! thou art most grievously distraught!" he said in troubled tones. "Thy words but prove the dark disorder of thy wits,—may Heaven soon heal thee of thy mental wound! Restrain thy wild and wandering fancies? … for surely thou canst not be familiar, as thou sayest with this silver Symbol, seeing that it is but the Talisman [Footnote: The Cross was held in singular veneration in the Temple of Serapis, and by many tribes in the East, ages before the coming of Christ] or Badge of the Mystic Brethren of Al-Kyris, and has no signification whatsoever save for the Elect. It was designed some twenty years ago by the inspired Chief of our Order, Khosrul, and such as are still his faithful disciples wear it as a record and constant reminder of his famous Prophecy."
Theos heard, and a dull apathy stole over him,—his recent excitement died out under a chilling weight of vague yet bitter disappointment.
"And this Prophecy?" he asked listlessly.. "What is its nature and whom doth it concern?"
"Nay, in very truth it is a strange and marvellous thing!" replied
Zuriel, his calm voice thrilling with a mellow touch of fervor..
"Khosrul, 'tis said, has heard the angels whispering in Heaven, and his
attentive ears have caught the echo of their distant speech.
"Thus spiritually instructed, he doth powerfully predict Salvation for the human race,—and doth announce, that in five thousand years or more, a God shall be moved by wondrous mercy to descend from Heaven, and take the form of Man, wherein, unknown, despised, rejected, he will live our life from commencement to finish, teaching, praying, and sanctifying by His Divine Presence the whole sin-burdened Earth. This done, He will consent to suffer a most cruel death, . . and the manner of His death will be that He shall hang, nailed hands and feet to a Cross, as though He were a common criminal, . . His holy brows shall be bound about with thorns,—and after hours of agony He, innocent of every sin, shall perish miserably—friendless, unpitied, and alone. But afterward, … and mark you! this is the chiefest glory of all! … He will rise again triumphant from the grave to prove his God-head, and to convince Mankind beyond all doubt an question, that there is indeed an immortal Hereafter,—an actual, free Eternity of Life, compared with which this our transient existence is a mere brief breathing-space of pause and probation, . . and then for evermore His sacred Name shall dominate and civilize the world…"
"What Name?".. interrupted Theos, with eager abruptness … "Canst thou pronounce it?"
Zuriel shook his head.
"Not I, my son"—he answered gravely.. "Not even Khosrul can penetrate thus far! The Name of Him who is to come, is hidden deep among God's unfathomed silences! It should suffice thee that thou knowest now the sum and substance of the Prophecy. Would I might live to see the days when all shall be fulfilled! … but alas, my remaining years are few upon the earth, and Heaven's time is not ours!"
He sighed,—and resumed his slow pacing onwards,—Theos walked beside him as a man may walk in sleep, uncertainly and with unseeing eyes, his heart beating loudly, and a sick sense of suffocation in his throat. What did it all mean? … Had his life gone back in some strange way? … or had he merely DREAMED of a former existence different to this one? He remembered now what Sah-luma had told him respecting Khosrul's "new" theory of a future religion,—a theory that to him had seemed so old, so old!—so utterly exhausted and worn threadbare! In what a cruel problem was he hopelessly involved!—what a useless, perplexed, confused being he had become! … he who would once to have staked his life on the unflinching strength and capabilities of human reason! After a pause, . .