Here followed a brief resume of his experiences in other quarters. Then in big black type he asked the question:—
“What follows, (according to the Bible program) this Stupendous Event?—The Bible, evidently, (when read aright) told those, who have been taken from our midst, that this translation was approaching, then it must surely give some hint of what we may expect to follow so startling an episode as that of to-night. The question is, what follows?”
“There must surely be many clergymen and ministers who knew about this great translation, who though not living in the spirit of what they knew, and being therefore left behind, like the common ruck of those of us, who were carelessly ignorant—there must be many such ministers left, who could teach us now, what to expect next, and how to prepare for the next eruption—whatever form it may take.”
“We therefore propose to any such ministers, that they gather us into the Albert Hall, Agricultural Hall, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Spurgeon’s Tabernacle, Whitfields—why not, in fact, into every church, chapel, Salvation Army Barracks, or even in the great open spaces such as Hyde Park, and other Parks, Primrose Hill, Hampstead Heath, etc., and teach us, who are left behind from the wondrous Translation, that has just occurred, how to be prepared for the next mighty change, for we believe the bulk of us are absolutely in the dark.”
“Meanwhile, are there no houses in Paternoster Row, and its neighbourhood, where books and pamphlets on these momentous subjects can be obtained, or are all such publishers translated with those of whom we have been writing?”
One effect of the last suggestion, in Bastin’s second postscript, was to send thousands of people to Paternoster Row, the Square, Ivy Lane, and all the neighbourhood. Some of the publishers of books on the Lord’s Second Coming, had been left behind, had not shared in the Rapture of which they had printed and published.
Storekeepers, packers, masters, clerks, were most of them reading up the contents of their own wares. Business system among them, at first, seemed an unknown quantity. Deadness, amaze, fear, uncertainty, all of these things held and dominated them.
But they had to wake up. Their counters were besieged. Hordes of people thronged the doors. In twenty minutes after the first great influx, there was not a tract, a booklet, or a volume, on the “Lord’s coming, and the events to follow,” left in the “Row.”
At any other time those in command of the stores, would have tried to get the printing presses at work, to run off some hundreds of thousands of the briefest of the “Second Advent” literature. But, to-day, fear, nameless fear held every one in thrall.