Then his wet clothing shocked and frightened him, and he began to remove it with palpitating haste, muttering fearfully as he redressed himself: "How I must have suffered! Great God, the physical melts away at the touch of the Spiritual! Oh, I wish Jessy would come! Why is she so late? When I do not want her she is here half an hour before this time." The next moment she tapped at his door and called, "Ian." "Oh, come in, Jessy. Come in! I want you! I want you!" "Breakfast is waiting." "Let it wait. Come in. I want you to tell me the truth, the plain, sure truth about what I am going to ask you." "What is it, Ian?" "Jessy, did you ever know me to dream?" "Never. You have always declared that you could not understand what Marion and I meant by dreaming." "Well, I had a dream this morning, and, though it seemed very short, I felt when I awoke from it as if I had been in hell all the night long." "What did you dream?" "I was in the vestry of the Church of the Disciples, putting on my vestments. I knew that the church was crowded, and I looked at myself and was proud of my appearance. Then I was walking up the aisle very slowly. Step by step I mounted the pulpit stairs, and stood facing the largest congregation I had ever seen. And the light was just like the light when there is an eclipse of the sun--an unearthly, solemn obscurity, frightful and mysterious. I stood in my place and surveyed the congregation. It filled the church, but the furthest points of distance appeared to be nearly in the dark. I could see forms and movements there, but nothing distinct. I looked at this gathering for a moment, and then laid my hand upon the Bible, and, with my eyes still upon the people, I opened it--Jessy!" "O man! Speak!" "There was nothing there." "Nothing there! What do you mean?" "Every page was blank--only white paper--not a word of any kind----" "Ian Macrae!" "I looked for my text. It was gone. I turned the pages with trembling hands, but neither in the Old nor the New Testament was there a word. And I cried out in my anguish, and looked at the wordless Bible till I felt as if body and soul were parting. God, how I suffered! Earth has no suffering to compare with it." "Then, Ian?" "Then I looked up at the congregation, and was going to tell them the Bible had faded away, but I saw the people were a moving dark mass, in a rapidly vanishing light; and I tried to find the pulpit stairs, but could not, for I was in black darkness. And I was not alone; to the right and the left there were movements and whispers and a sense of _Presence_ about me. Powers unutterable and unseen that must have come out of inevitable hell. The whole earth appeared to be awake and aware, and _the Name_, _the Name_ I wanted to call upon I could not remember. The effort to do so was a tasting of death." He covered his face and was silent, and Mrs. Caird took his cold hand and said softly, "O Lord, Thou Lover of souls! Thou sparest all, for they are Thine."