This is the most critical rending of the veil; because, when it takes place, the others follow. When we have our eyes opened to see the glory of Christ, we soon know the Father also; and the darkness passes from the face of eternity, because eternity for us is to be forever with the Lord. [1] "May this phenomenon account for the early conversion of so many priests recorded in Acts vi. 7?"--EDERSHEIM. [2] Shakespeare is very fond of describing the portents by which remarkable events are foreshadowed. Thus, _Julius Caesar_, Act I. Scene ii.:-- "O Cicero, I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds Have rived the knotty oaks; and I have seen Th' ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam, To be exalted with the threatening clouds; But never till to-night, never till now Did I go through a tempest dropping fire. A common slave--you know him well by sight-- Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn Like twenty torches joined; and yet his hand, Not sensible of fire, remained unscorched. Besides--I ha' not since put up my sword-- Against the Capitol I met a lion, Who glared upon me and went surly by, Without annoying me. And there were drawn Upon a heap an hundred ghastly women, Transformed with their fear, who swore they saw Men, all in fire, walk up and down the streets. And yesterday the bird of night did sit Even at noonday upon the marketplace, Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies Do so conjointly meet, let not men say, 'These are their reasons--they are natural,' For I believe they are portentous things Unto the climate that they point upon." See also Act II., Scene ii., and Act V., Scene i. of the same play; _Macbeth_, Act II., Scene ii.; _Hamlet_, Act I., Scene i. Such impressions are not, however, even in modern times, confined to poetry alone. Historical instances will suggest themselves to every reader. [3] Some of the most interesting I have read occur in a brief memoir of the founder of the Bagster Publishing Company issued on the centenary of its opening. [4] _De Oraculorum Defectu_, quoted by Heubner in his commentary, _in loc_. [5] _stenagmos ama thaumasmo_. [6] Heb. x. 19-22. [7] So the ignorance of immortality is expressly called in the beautiful passage, Isa. xxv. 7. [8] Sir Thomas Browne, _Hydrotaphia_, chap. iv.: "A dialogue between two infants in the womb concerning the state of this world might handsomely illustrate our ignorance of the next, where, methinks, we still discourse in Plato's den, and are but embryo philosophers." [9] _Parestekos ex enantias autou_. CHAPTER XXII. THE DEAD CHRIST