He knows his Bible right off, that old gentleman does; he's got his notions out of it, whether they're right or wrong." Trenholme stared at him.

It was some time before the young man's ideas made their way into his mind.

Then he wondered if his apparent earnestness could possibly be real.
"Your application is an extraordinary one," he said stiffly.
Harkness was too sensitive not to perceive the direction the doubt had taken.

"It may be extraordinary, but I do assure you it's genuine." As he grew to believe in the youth's sincerity, Trenholme thought he perceived that, although he had asked what would be the probable direction of the enthusiast's wanderings, the dentist was really stricken with doubt as to whether the prediction might not possibly be correct, and longed chiefly to know Trenholme's mind on that important matter.
"This crazy fellow is astray in his interpretation of Scripture," he said, "if he believes that it teaches that the Second Advent is now imminent; and his fixing upon to-night is, of course, quite arbitrary.
God works by growth and development, not by violent miracle.

If you study the account of our Lord's first coming, you see that, not only was there long preparation, but that the great miracle was hidden in the beautiful disguise of natural processes.