earth?"

"Just a countryman of yours, who has forgathered with you before. Have
you no mind of the Cauldstaneslap and the Canongate Tolbooth?"

He snatched up the lamp and peered into my face, but he was long past
recollection.

"I know ye not. But if ye be indeed one from that idolatrous country of
Scotland, the Lord hath sent you to witness the triumph of His servant,
Know that I am no longer the man John Gib, but the chosen of the Lord,
to whom He hath given a new name, even Jerubbaal, saying let Baal plead
against him, because he hath thrown down his altar."

"That's too long a word for me to remember, Mr. Gib, so by your leave
I'll call you as you were christened."

I had forced myself to a slow coolness, and my voice seemed to madden
him.

"Ye would outface me," he cried. "I see ye are an idolater from the
tents of Shem, on whom judgment will be speedy and surprising. Know ye
not what the Lord hath prepared for ye? Down in your proud cities ye
are feasting and dicing and smiling on your paramours, but the writing
is on the wall, and in a little ye will be crying like weaned bairns
for a refuge against the storm of God. Your strong men shall be slain,
and your virgins shall be led captive, and your little children shall
be dashed against a stone. And in the midst of your ruins I, even I,
will raise a temple to the God of Israel, and nations that know me not
will run unto me because of the Lord my God."