Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 2.djvu/375

 the intervention of the grave was promised and expected, and at last this new dispensation is granted as the crown and confirmation of Christianity, for who shall refuse to believe, when revelation is confirmed by such a tremendous miracle? I ask you again, do you wish to live for ever?"

"For ever is a long time," I said, in the bantering tone I had commonly employed when speaking to him; "but I would not object to a century or two in good company. By what method can one obtain this earthly immortality?"

"By prayer and obedience," he replied with a solemn air. "I cannot confer the gift of eternity on any one who does not consent to be implicitly guided by me, so far as my directions are founded on Holy Scripture and the doctrines of the primitive Church."

"I must renounce the errors of Popery, then, I presume, and consent to be baptized anew in the Boyne water to obtain this blessing. Must I join an Orange Lodge?"

"Shame!" he said, "you are scoffing at God's greatest gift to latter-day Christians, destined to be received with thanks and blessings over the whole earth. I can accept as clients the members of any Christian Church; if you will introduce me to Dr. Paul Cullen, for example, I will enable him to remain Archbishop of his community in this country for more centuries than have elapsed since the coming of St. Patrick."

"Good gracious!" I exclaimed, throwing up my arms in mock consternation, "you frighten me, for that is just what I don't want to happen. I expect no good for Ireland till the period which a friend of mine calls paulo post future, and if you are going to inflict Dr. Cullen on us in perpetuity I cry off and must decline your immortality. But pray tell me, how did you make this prodigious discovery?"

"I found it in the Scriptures, mainly in portions of them hitherto considered unintelligible. It was plainly promised that the blessings should come, and that the year 1874 was the appointed time."

"Would you mind showing me these Scripture evidences?"

"I can only undertake to exhibit any proofs to persons familiar with the Scriptures in the original, profoundly