superstitious triumph, through which I have struggled to reach you, will
be turned to howls of anguish if you stop your ears and are deaf to the
words of salvation.

"Yea, you may murmur! You will not reduce me to silence, for Truth
speaks in me and can never be dumb. I say to each of you that knows it
not: The staff of the departed Plotinus has been placed in my hands.
I would fain bear it with gentleness and mercy; but, if I must, I will
wield it as a sword and a scourge till your wounds bleed and your bruises
ache.

"Behold in my right hand the image of your Redeemer! I hold it up as a
wall between you and the heathen abomination which you hail with joy in
your blindness.

"Ye are accursed and apostate. Lift up your hearts, and look at Him who
died on the cross to save you. Verily He will not let him perish who
believeth in Him; but you! where is your faith? Because it is
night ye lament and cry: The Light is dead!' Because ye are sick ye
say: 'The physician cannot heal!'

"What are these blasphemies that I hear: 'The Lord and His Church are
powerless! Magic, enchantments, and heathen abominations may save us.'
--But, inasmuch as ye trust not in the true Saviour and Redeemer, but in
heathen wickedness, magic, and enchantments, punishment shall be heaped
on punishment; and so it will be,--I see it coming--till ye are choked
in the mud and seek with groans the only Hand that is able to save.

"That whereby the blinded sons of men hope to escape from the evil, that,
and that only, is the source of their sufferings and I stand here to stay