e radiance of the pulpit which was set on the furthermost
peak of the mountain, and you could not see the pulpit--from toe to head
it was of pure gold--for the shining countenance of Isaiah; and as
Isaiah preached, blood issued out of the ends of his fingers from the
violence with which he smote his Bible, and his single voice was louder
than the lamentations of the damned.

As the Lord had enjoined, the inhabitants of Heaven rejoiced: eating and
drinking, weeping and crying hosanna.

But Paul would not joy over that which the Lord had done, and soon he
sought Him, and finding Him said: "A certain Roman noble labored his
horses to their death in a chariot race before Caesar: was he worthy of
Caesar's reward?"

"The noble is on the mountain-side," God answered, "and his horses are
in my chariots."

"One bears witness to his own iniquity, and you bid us feast and you say
'He shall have remembrance of me.'"

"Is there room in Heaven for a false witness?" asked God.

Again did Paul seek God. "My Lord," he entreated, "what manner of man is
this that confesses his faults?"

"You will provoke my wrath," said God. "Go and be merry."

Paul's face being well turned, God moved backward into the Record
Office, and of the Clerk of the Records He demanded: "Who is he that
prayed unto me?"

"William Hughes-Jones," replied the Clerk.

"Has the Forgiving Angel blotted out his sins?"

"For that I have fixed a long space of time"; and the Clerk showed God
eleven heavy books, on the outside of each of which was written:
"William Hughes-Jones, One and All Drapery Store, Hammersmith. His
sins"; and God examined the books and was pleased, and He cried:
"Rejoice fourfold"; and if Isaiah's roar was higher than the wailings of
the perished it was now more awful than the roar of a hundred bullocks
in a slaughter-house, and if Isaiah's countenance shone more than
anything in Heaven, it was now like the eye of the sun.

"Of what nation is he?" the Lord inquired of the Clerk.

"The Welsh; the Welsh Nonconformists."

"Put before me their good deeds."

"There is none. William Hughes-Jones is the first of them that has
prayed. Are not the builders making a chamber for the accounts of their
disobedience?"

Immediately God thundered: the earth trembled and the stars shivered and
fled from their courses and struck against one another; and God stood
on the brim of the universe and stretched out a hand and a portion of a
star fell into