I saw him read from the leaves of a book, and as he read,
he wept and shook with fear; and at length he broke out with a loud cry,
and said, What shall I do to save my soul?

So in this plight he went home, and as long as he could he held his
peace, that his wife and babes should not see his grief. But at length
he told them his mind, and thus he spoke, O my dear wife, and you my
babes, I, your dear friend, am full of woe, for a load lies hard on me;
and more than this, I have been told that our town will be burnt with
fire, in which I, you my wife, and you my sweet babes, shall be lost, if
means be not found to save us.

This sad tale struck all who heard him with awe, not that they thought
what he said to them was true, but that they had fears that some weight
must be on his mind; so, as night now drew near, they were in hopes that
sleep might soothe his brain, and with all haste they got him to bed.

When the morn broke, they sought to know how he did? He told them, Worse
and worse; and he set to talk once more in the same strain as he had
done; but they took no heed of it. By and by, to drive off his fit, they
spoke harsh words to him; at times they would laugh, at times they would
chide, and then set him at nought. So he went to his room to pray for
them, as well as to nurse his own grief. He would go, too, into the
woods to read and muse, and thus for some weeks he spent his time.

Now I saw, in my dream, that one day as he took his walk in the fields
with his book in his hand, he gave a groan,--for he felt as if a cloud
were on his soul,--and he burst out as he was wont to do, and said, Who
will save me? I saw, too, that he gave wild looks this way and that, as
if he would rush off; yet he stood still, for he could not tell which
way to go. At last, a man, whose name was Evangelist, came up to him and
said, Why dost thou weep?

He said, Sir, I see by this book in my hand that I am to die, and that
then God will judge me. Now I dread to die.

Evangelist.--Why do you fear to die, since this life is fraught with
woe?

The man said, I fear lest a hard doom should wait me, and that this load
on my back will make me sink down, till at last, I shall find I am in
Tophet.

If this be your case, said Evangelist, why do you stand still?

But the man said, I know not where to go.

Then he gave him a scroll with these words on it, Fly from the wrath to
come.

When the man read it he said, Which way must I fly?