Page:The North Star (1904).djvu/353

Rh Tomb where He slept. The pilgrims who journey to the Holy Land, and the Christians who dwell in Palestine are sorely persecuted by the infidel followers of Mahomet. Shall their Christian brethren of Europe see them suffer in silence?”

“They shall not! They shall not!” The pilgrim was standing erect in a commanding attitude, and his voice rang through the audience chamber. “I will unsheathe my sword again! I will serve under the banner of the cross! I will rescue the tomb of my Saviour from the Moslems.” He paused, and looking perplexed said inquiringly: “But if the end is so soon to come, Holy Father? I have often heard it said upon my journey that the world’s end is near. If the thousand years of St. John’s Revelation have indeed passed, and the Saviour come so soon to judge the world on the Judgment Seat of Mount Sion, how may we plan of earthly conquests?”

The Pope shook his head gravely. “My son, it is a dream, a phantasm of the foolish mind. More than five hundred years ago the Church rebuked the leaders who so loudly proclaimed this Millennium doctrine. Now it hath again sprung to life and is carrying the weak and ill-taught to foolish practice. We plan and we work for the spread of the faith, and we build and we teach as if there were no such stumbling-block in our path as this wild belief in the near approach of the Judgment Day. Thou, my son, wilt see the holy places of the Saviour, but Christ Himself thou shalt