the darkness; some weak, wailing voices, She was in the darkness, she thought, A voice beside her said, "Behold!" She did not know the voice, but she felt, in its gentleness and beauty, that it was the voice of that one who had come to her in the dreary darkness, and would not leave her in that dreadful hour. And she looked, at the bidding of the voice, down through the darkness; and dark as it was to others, nothing was hid at the voice of the one who said "Behold!" A city, with towers and columns, lay below-a grand and beautiful city, sleeping on the mountain bosoms of the earth. Over the city was a long historic roll. Two wondrous beings held it. All things were written therein that had been done by the rulers and people of that city. By the roll stood a figure clad in light, reading silently now, and soon to read the annals of the city in a voice that should sound through the world. And by the roll stood another figure, Darkness incarnate, that seemed as if he would have snatched the written story from the hand of the two that held it, but for the glimmering sword that rested under the right hand of him that was reading the scroll. The voice that had bidden her look now said, "Read ;" and she drew near, and saw in the scroll a strange and fearful tale. As she read, the writing seemed to live, and the words that were written made her feel as if she was living and acting in the time of which they told. And so she saw where was written, "The blood of the martyrs." 427 And there appeared an old man, leaning on a child fleeing from a mountain cottage. thing to the child, and the child went The old man bent down to whisper someback and came out with a book. Just then three soldiers appeared, marked each with a white cross. They took the book, the little mountain home, and bade the just dimly seeing figures of pale mothers She turned away, weeping at the sight, ing away in a fire from earth, of sacred clasping their babes, of young girls passmen looking upward, and dying as they sword and fire, charred by flame or bathed looked a long procession, all marked by in blood; and when she would have asked who they all were who suffered sadly, she saw written over them, "The martyrs of Jesus." heaven, a gate of gold, and out of it passed Just then there opened, far away up in a white and glittering throng. A flood of their faces were radiant with unmeasured soft light made the bright figures shine; and endless joy. gate, and looked, all of them, at the unThey came in glory out of the golden folding roll in the angels' hands. As they looked at it, it seemed that red eyes burned in the Incarnate Darkness, and that baffled hate and rage came in white smoke from his mouth, as he looked on that once martyred but now triumphant throng. And behind the shining figures trooping them all in white when they came, some out of the gate, was One who had robed from the fire, and some from the flood, up to that place of holy joy. He looked on them benignly as they looked on the roll, for He had suffered and would triumph in them. And now, gathering round the Dark One, came crowding a strange band. Some of the figures wore tiaras, some and scarlet, that they were trying in vain miters, and some wore garments of blue to tear off and cast away, as they were impelled forward, by a power they could not resist, to join the throng that was crowding round the red-eyed Darkness. But strangest of all was it, that certain figures among these, who had borne great names, and been called "saints" by their worshipers, were compelled to appear, with the bloody deeds, and blasphemous words, and treasons against Heaven which they had incited, fastened round them as asbestos garments, that would burn in and in, into their souls forever, but be impervious to the fiercest heat that would be the torment of undying demons. Just then, pealing down from the golden gate, a voice reached the city that lay below in the darkness. It came down like a sound of music to some poor sleepers in that city, and wakened them up from their slumbers, as it cried, "Come out of her, my people; come away!" From dungeons, and prisons, and homes of fear, came timidly forth poor trembling figures; out into the darkness they came, hastening at the sound of that voice of music that had cried to them, in a voice that the city heard not, "Come out of her, my people; come away!" A strange sight then was seen. Round the city was a ring of fire; in mid air it hung, lighting the spires, and domes, and columns, but awakening not the sleepers. The angel that had read the roll silently looked up to the Faithful One at the golden gate; and the One at the golden gate looked once at the glittering throng, and then said, "Pronounce the doom!" Slowly round the city fell the fiery ring. Down it came, till it made the mountaintops burn brightly; and just when it touched the ground, and none might pass out of the city forever, the sleepers in the city wakened up, to be wedded by that ring to death. And then, with loud voice, the mighty angel that stood by the roll read out the dreadful deeds of that city of doom; the world wakened up from its long slumber to hear the reading; and a bright, transcendent light, that shone over the earth like ten thousand suns, showed the glory of the righteous doom that had fallen on that city of the fire. For from the fiery ring had darted inward tongues of flame. The palace of a tiaraed pontiff was in a red whirling blaze of fire, and the pontiff himself stood vainly invoking the aid of powers that could not help him now. And there were cardinals and abbots, and men that now easily and naturally laid aside the semblance of humanity, and stood out before the light of heaven, the demons that they always were. The flames flew onward through the city, and legions of dark spirits were flying through the flames; for the hour of their triumph, and yet of their downfall, had come the sin-gate of the infernal place being about to be closed forever. And yet the smoke that is rising from those flames, up, and up, and up, as it was about to be quenched by the angel, when nothing but ashes remained where that city was, was ordered to rise on forever, that the spirits of the redeemed might enjoy perpetual triumph over the baffled potentate, who for dreary centuries had made his earth palace on that spot, which was now to burn on earth, an everlasting beacon to warn the star-worlds against death and hell. It was done. And now the unnumbered bliss-spirits of heaven crowded forward to the golden gate, and they joined their loud applauses with the praises of the white-robed throng that went before; and the baffled powers of darkness shuddered, as down to the very infernals floated the echo of that mighty voice, singing, with a full-toned melody that even heaven itself before had never heard, “Alleluiah! Amen!” Wave after wave of the song rolled on and on, and the face of the Bright One beamed with glory, as the voice of the mighty heavens proclaimed that Time's grandest day was coming. From the golden gate, when the “Alleluiahs" were over, a light fell down upon the earth. Down it came, nearer and nearer, and men saw then, that in the center of the light shone the Bright and Morning Star. That Bright Star was the Faithful and True; and the trembling ones of earth, who had ever looked for the rising of that Star, now shone with a light that was brighter than the brightness of the sun. Suffering souls needed no longer to cry, in tears and sorrow, "Come, Lord Jesus!" For the Jesus they loved had come. IT NOBODY'S DOG. T was on a cold, dark, foggy night in November, as I was trudging homeward, I was accosted by a large white dog. After some time, I perceived that he was looking up in my face, as if wishing to attract my attention. "Pray, whose dog are you?" I inquired. The poor brute looked up at me with a pitiful expression, and I read my answer in his heavy, beseeching eye : 66 Alas, sir, I am nobody's dog!" "Poor brute !" I exclaimed, "I pity you, and would take you home, and give you supper and a dry bed in the cellar, if I dared; but I have a cross old housekeeper who hates your species, and whom even the footprint of one of your race on the door-step driveth to the verge of madness. Go along, sir." that I was softened toward him, he approached nearer, and once more appealed to me with doleful looks. "Poor dog!" said I; "you are doubtless hungry, as well as weary and cold. Come, I will do my duty toward you as a Christian, and give you something to eat." And with that I led the way into a tavern, the dog following. "Now, nobody's dog, what will you have?" There was quite another expression in his face now. The hang-dog look had vanished in an instant, and his eyes beamed with expectancy. "What will you have, nobody's dog?" He wagged his tail and smacked his lean chops, as much as to say, "Anything, so that you give it me quickly." I tossed him half of a biscuit, which he bolted at a gulp. Another disappeared in the same way; but the eager, The dog took a backward jump, and re-hungry eye was still watching the motion treated precipitately. of my hand. "More" was written there as plainly as "No smoking allowed" was written upon the partition which kept the scene of our refection select. More he had; but never so much as a wink did that dog allow to obscure the watchfulness of that eager eye of his, until he had bolted four biscuits. I soon fell into one of those musing moods which a walk through quiet and deserted streets rarely fails to beget in the least thoughtful minds. I gave way to thinking, and my thoughts were of dogs. There was no work-house for dogs, as there was for Christians, and even pagans. If a dog lost his master, or was drowned, or "Come, now, I think you will do, nofell into decay, what was he to do? He body's dog ;" and going out into the street, could not garotte a baker in the street; I endeavored, by flourishing my umbrella he could not swindle shareholders, or chalk in a threatening manner, and otherwise a mackerel on the pavement; he could conducting myself objectively, to make it not write begging letters, or advertise his understood by that dog that I conceived distress in the papers; nor could he go to I had done my duty by him, and was rehis fellow-dogs, and appeal to them with solved to be troubled no more. The dog any hope of success. What could he do? retreated hastily, and seizing the favorHe might possibly be able to rob a butch-able moment, I turned a corner and ran er's shop of a steak, but even then everything would be against his getting clear off with his prize. Clearly the case of dogs in reduced circumstances was a very hard one, and something ought to be done for them. I was just thinking what that something should be, when I became sensible of a pattering sound on the pavement behind me; and on turning round, behold, there was my white four-footed friend close at my heels. Dear, dear! Well; | after my philanthropic (or rather philocynic) theory about reduced dogs, I could not with any grace dismiss this canine waif until I had made some endeavor to mitigate his distresses. The brute seemed to start up to put me to the proof. Seeing, with the quick perception of his nature, away. On reaching home, I found a comfortable fire in my room, and the faithful Mrs. Brown, my housekeeper, preparing supper. "I have been bothered by a dog following me, Mrs. Brown." "O, drat all dogs, I say," replied Mrs. Brown, tartly. "I really thought he would have followed me home, and insisted on my taking him in." "Then it's lucky he didn't," said Mrs. Brown, flourishing the poker a little. "I hate dogs." I had disposed of my supper, when I was startled by a noise at the street-door, as of some one trying the lock. Presently the resumed. noise was repeated; and this time it sound-yond a respite from the persecution of the ed, as I thought, like the noise of a saw. broom. Mrs. Brown couldn't abide dogs; At that time of night it was natural to and with a declaration to that effect, she think of burglars. I armed myself with retired to the regions below. the poker, and crept quietly out into the passage. "Who's there?" I called. No answer. Presently the scratching was "Who's there?" I called again. This time there was an answer, and it came through below the door in the shape of a low whine. A suspicion of the truth instantly flashed across me, and I at once opened the door; and there, on the doorstep, covered with mud, dripping with wet, and shivering with the cold, stood, or rather crouched, that big, white, vagabond dog, whom I had congratulated myself on having got rid of forever. "What do you want now, you exorbitant, ungrateful, insatiable dog?" He whined and shivered pitifully, as if to remind me of the relentless rain and the sharp, biting cold. 66 Well, come in, you tiresome brute; it is a cruel night, to be sure, and you appear to have had enough of it." I took that dog in, I wiped his feet for him on the mat, lodged him on some straw in the coal-cellar, and retired to rest with a sense of having done my duty that day, if | ever I had in my life. I have heard that well-doing conduces to all kinds of happiness, even to sound sleep and pleasant dreams. I ought, then, to have slept well that night, and I believe I did; but whether I enjoyed pleasant dreams or not, I cannot say; but I do know that I was awoke next morning by a fearful row in the house. Bang, bang-get out-hi-bang, ban-get out-bang-yelp! I thought of the dog; and rushing to the door of my room, I discovered the good Mrs. Brown on the landing, charging my protégé in a most savage and deadly manner. "What's the matter, Mrs. Brown? what's the matter ?" I shouted. "A great, big, ugly, white dog, has got into the house," cried the agonized lady; "and he's been and left his marks all along the passage." (Bang-yelp!) "Don't hurt him, Mrs. Brown; don't hurt him, I let him in; it's my fault." (Bang-yelp!) Being now dressed, I hurried to the rescue of the innocent animal, upon whose devoted head Mrs. Brown's stair-broom was evidently taking lethal effect; but I could achieve little for the poor brute be I took nobody's dog with me into the parlor, designing, if possible, to awaken in his mind a sense of the trying position in which his importunate conduct had placed me; but while revolving whether instant elimination, enforced by kicks, would not be at once the most impressive and effectual mode of making myself understood, the faithful, but in this instance impetuous, Mrs. Brown, burst into the room in a state of great excitement, and cried, "There! there's your protiggy!" In each hand Mrs. Brown extended a plate. On one reposed a roll of butter, on the other a sausage. The butter showed marks of teeth, and had a decided appearance of having been licked; the sausage was gnawed and mangled beyond recognition. There was an awful pause; and to a third party, I fancy the tableau presented at that moment would have been highly imposing. There stood Mrs. Brown indignant and accusatory; there sat I, overwhelmed, astonished, hurt; and there sat the vagabond dog, crouching on his haunches under my glance, with a look that unmistakably proclaimed him guilty. "And look here," cried Mrs. Brown, turning to another clause in the indictment; "look at the marks of his feet all along the passage and down the stairs." "Well, Mrs. Brown, what am I to do with him?" “Drown_him,” Mrs. Brown said; and she said it from the bottom of her heart. "O, Mrs. Brown, that would be cruel. No; I can't drown him; but I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll take him out and lose him." Ah, well," said Mrs. Brown, tartly; "you'll lose that dog, or lose me, Mr. John-there!" Did Mrs. Brown, my good, faithful, attached Mrs. Brown, contemplate giving me warning? The bare thought of such a thing armed me with resolution. I put on my hat and coat, and left the house, whistling the dog after me. Whither should I go? To what terra incognita should I bend my steps? In fact, how should I contrive to lose this troublesome dog? I decided to be guided by fate, and set out, the dog following at my heels, ap parently perfectly unconscious of my de- a villain. But, alas! I had been born a sign against him. He trotted now before diplomatist; and diplomacy must be my me, now behind me, looked up at me, wag-weapon. I took a ticket at the steamged his tail, and occasionally stopped to boat pier, gave sixpence to an idler to keep say a word or two to other dogs; proba- back the dog, and rushed along the gangbly to inform them that he had found a way to the boat. I was just in time; as master who had plenty of sausages and I planted my foot on the deck the vessel butter in his cupboard, and that conse- moved off. Looking up to the shore, I quently he was now all right. Little did saw the dog and the man struggling; the he think that the end and object of all his next instant, the dog broke from the man's master's evolutions at that moment; his grasp and rushed to the pier. He was darting down by-streets and through the too late. But O, how shall I describe the mazes of mews, his sudden disappearances feelings of mingled pain and pleasure round corners and down alleys, his rushing which shot through my heart, as I saw in at the front-doors of shops and stealing that dog leap from the pier into the river, out at the back doors, his getting behind and bravely breast the waves to follow hoardings and into sly inclosures; little me! did that unsuspecting dog conceive that all this was the desperate execution of a deeply-laid plan for losing him, and throwing him once more upon the cruel, rainy, foggy, sloppy, victualless, and bedless world, a masterless, houseless, hungry, mendicant, vagrant dog. But for some time my best and most desperate efforts were as vain and fruitless as if he had known my intent, and been watching every move to defeat it. At length a favorable opportunity presented itself. I seized it; and while the dog was engaged in a long and earnest confabulation with another dog, I jumped in at the open door of an omnibus, and the next instant was driven off. After a prudent interval, I ventured to peep out from behind the panel, but no dog could I see. I had eluded him at last; well, thank goodness! I got out with the intention of proceeding onward by another omnibus. As the conductor tendered me sixpence in change, he said, "Is this your dog, sir ?" As I live, there was the dog again at my heels, wagging his tail and stretching his jaws as much as to say, "Am I not a clever, faithful dog now, to discover my good master and follow him so far, and never once lose sight of him?" How was I to kick the brute, or strike him, with that innocent look of self-satisfaction in his face? I could not do it. Still I was resolved to commit the negative cruelty of losing him. Ha! should I hurry to the river, and pitch him in, take him by the scruff of the neck and fling him into the -the rolling tide? I was neither cruel nor melodramatic enough for that; and I think a sort of regret did pass through my mind at the time that I had not been born A shout of admiration was raised from the boat and echoed back from the shore. A hundred eyes were upon the dog. The boat, which had shot straight across the stream for the purpose of turning, was now nearing the shore again, so that she came within a few yards of the spot where the dog was battling with the tide. The passengers now rushed in a body to the bulwarks to watch the noble swimmer. No one appeared more interested in the scene than the captain. His attention was so absorbed by the dog, that he appeared to forget all about his duties. There he stood on the paddle-box watching him. A sudden thought struck me, and I pulled the captain by the skirts : "Stop for him, captain; he is my dog." "That I will," said the man, in a tone of enthusiasm; and in an instant the order was given, "Stop her!" One of the men threw out a rope with a noose at the end of it, and the next instant the dog floated over it, fell into the |