CHAPTER XLIII.
THE MIDNIGHT ALARM.
At last the time drew on toward midnight, the hour upon which all expectation was concentrated.

For did not the Parable of the Ten Virgins speak of the coming of the bridegroom at midnight?
"My friends and brethren," said Elder Hankins, his voice shaking with emotion, as he held his watch up in the moonlight, "My friends and brethren, ef the Word is true, they is but five minutes more before the comin' in of the new dispensation.

Let us spend the last moments of time in silent devotion." "I wonder ef he thinks the world runs down by his pay-tent-leever watch ?" said Jonas, who could not resist the impulse to make the remark, even with the expectation of the immediate coming of the day of judgment in his mind.
"I wonder for what longitude he calculates prophecy ?" said Andrew.

"It can not be midnight all round the world at the same moment." But Elder Hankins's flock did not take any astronomical difficulty into consideration.

And no spectator could look upon them, bowing silently in prayer, awed by the expectation of the sudden coming of the Lord, without feeling that, however much the expectation might be illusory, the emotion was a fact absolutely awful.