My Neighbours/Chapter 1
The Two Apostles
I
The Two Apostles
God covered sun, moon, and stars, stilled the growing things of the earth and dried up the waters on the face of the earth, and stopped the roll of the world; and He fixed upon a measure of time in which to judge the peoples, this being the measure which was spoken of as the Day of Judgment.
In the meanseason He summoned Satan to the Judgment Hall, which is at the side of the river that breaks into four heads, and above which, its pulpits stretching beyond the sky, is the Palace of White Shirts, and below which, in deep darknesses, are the frightful regions of the Fiery Oven. "Give an account of your rule in the face of those whom you provoked to mischief," He said to Satan. "My balance hitched to a beam will weigh the good and evil of my children, and if good is heavier than evil, I shall lighten your countenance and clothe you with the robes of angels."
"Awake the dead" He bade the Trumpeter, and "Lift the lids off the burying-places" He bade the labourers. In their generations were they called; "for," said the Lord, "good and evil are customs of a period and when the period is passed and the next is come, good may be evil and evil may be good."
Now God did not put His entire trust in Satan, and in the evening of the day He set to prove him: "It is over."
"My Lord, so be it," answered Satan.
"How now?" asked God.
"The scale of wickedness sways like a kite in the wind," cried Satan. "Give me my robes and I will transgress against you no more.”
"In the Book of Heaven and Hell," said God, "there is no writing of the last of the Welsh."
Satan spoke up: "My Lord, your pledge concerned those judged on the Day of Judgment. Day is outing. The windows of the Mansion are lit; hark the angels tuning their golden strings for the cheer of the Resurrection Supper. Give me my robes that I may sing your praises."
"Can I not lengthen the day with a wink of my eye?"
"All things you can do, my Lord, but observe your pledge to me. Allow these people to rest a while longer. Their number together with the number of their sins is fewer than the hairs on Elisha's head."
God laughed in His heart as He replied to Satan: "Tell the Trumpeter to take his horn and the labourers their spades and bring to me the Welsh."
The labourers digged, and at the sound of the horn the dead breathed and heaved. Those whose wit was sharp hurried into neighbouring chapels and stole Bibles and hymn-books, with which in their pockets and under their arms they joined the host in Heaven's Courtyard, whence they went into the Waiting Chamber that is without the Judgment Hall.
"Boy bach, a lot of Books of the Word he has," a woman remarked to the Respected Towy-Watkins. "Say him I have one."
"Happy would I be to do like that," was the reply. "But, female, much does the Large One regard His speeches. What is the text on the wall? 'Prepare your deeds for the Lord.' The Beybile is the most religious deed. Farewell for now," and he pretended to go away.
Holding the sleeve of his White Shirt, the woman separated her toothless gums and fashioned her wrinkled face in grief. "Two tens he has," she croaked. "And his shirt is clean. Dirty am I; buried I was as I was found, and the shovellers beat the soil through the top of the coffin. Do much will I for one Beybile."
"A poor dab you are," said Towy. "Many deeds you have? But no odds to me."
"Four I have."
"Woe for you, unfortunate."
"Iss-iss, horrid is my plight," the woman whined. "Little I did for Him."
"Don't draw tears. For eternity you'll weep. Here is a massive Beybile for your four deeds."
"Take him one. Handy will three be in the minute of the questioning."
"Refusing the Beybile bach you are. Also the hymn-book—old and new notations—I present for four. Stupid am I as the pigger's prentice who bought the litter in the belly."
"Be him soft and sell for one."
"I cannot say less. No relation you are to me. Hope I do that right enough are your four. Recite them to me, old woman."
"I ate rats to provide a Beybile to the Respected," the woman trembled. "I—"
"You are pathetic," Towy said. "Hie and get your tokens and have that poor one will I because of my pity for you."
The woman told her deeds in Heaven's Record Office, and she was given four white tablets on which her deeds were inscribed; and the rat tablet Towy took from her. "Faith and hope are tidy heifers," he said, "but a stallion is charity. Priceless Beybile I give you, sinner."
As he moved away Towy cried in the manner of one selling by auction: "This is the beloved Beybile of Jesus. This is the book of hymns—old and new notations. Hymns harvest, communion, funerals, Sunday schools, and hymns for children bach are here. Treasures bulky for certain."
For some he received three tablets each, for some five tablets each, and for some ten tablets each. But the gaudy Bible which was decorated with pictures and ornamented with brass clasps and a leather covering he did not sell; nor did he sell the gilt-edged hymn-book. Between the leaves of his Bible he put his tablets—as a preacher his markers—the writing on each tablet confirming a verse in the place it was set. His labour over, he chanted: "Pen Calvaria! Pen Calvaria! Very soon will come to view." Men and women gazed upon him, envying him; and those who had Bibles and hymn-books hastened to do as he had done.
Among the many that came to him was one whose name was Ben Lloyd.
"Dear me," said Towy.
"Dear me," said Ben.
"Fat is my religion after the springing," cried Towy. "Perished was I and up again. Amen, Big Man. Amen and amen. And amen.
"I opened my eyes and I saw a hand thrusting aside the firmament and I heard One calling me from the beyond, and the One was God."
"Like the roar of heated bulls was the noise, Ben bach."
"Praise Him I did that I was laid to rest at home. Apart from the worldly ways of the Metropolis. Tell Him I will how my spirit, though the flesh was dead, bathed in the living rivers and walked in the peaceful valleys of the glorious land of my fathers—thinking, thinking of Jesus."
"Hold on. Not so fast. From Capel Bryn Salem I journeyed to mouth with heart to the Lord, and your slut of widow paid me only four soferens. Eloquent sermon I spouted and four soferens is the price of a supply."
"In your charity forgive her; her sorrow was overpowering."
"Sorrow! The mule of an English! She wasn't there."
"You don't say," cried Ben. "If above she is will I have her dragged down."
"Not a stone did she put over your head, and the strumpets of your sisters did not tend your grave. Why you were not eaten by worms I can't know."
On a sudden Towy shouted: "See an old parson do I. Is not this the day of rising up? Awful if the Big Man mistakes us for the Church. Not been inside a church have I, drop dead and blind, since I was born."
None gave heed to his cry, for the sound of the bargaining was most high. "Dissenters," he bellowed, "what right have Church heathens to mix with us? The Fiery Oven is their home."
The people were dismayed. Their number being small, the Church folk were pressed one upon the other; and after they were thrown in a mass against the gate of the Chariot House the Dissenters spread themselves easily as far as the door of the Crooked Stairway.
"Now, boys capel," Towy-Watkins said, "we will have a sermon. Fine will Welsh be in the nostrils of the Big Preacher. Pray will I at once."
The prayer ended, and one struck his tuning-fork; and while the congregation moaned and lamented, a tall man, who wore the habit of a preacher and whose yellow beard—the fringe of which was singed—hung over his breast like a sheaf of wheat, passed through the way of the door of the Stairway, and as he walked towards the Judgment Hall, some said: "Fair day, Respected," and some said: "Similar he is to Towy-Watkins."
"Shut your throats, colts," Towy rebuked the people. "Say after me: Go round my backhead, Satan.'"
Go round my backhead, Satan," the people obeyed.
"Catch him and skin him," Towy screamed. "Teach him we will to snook about here."
Fear arming his courage, Satan shouted: "He who hurts me him shall I pitch headlong to the flames." The people's hands went to their sides, and Satan departed in peace.
"In my heart is my head," Towy said. "Near the Oven we are. Blow your noses of the stench. Young youths, herd blockheads Church over here."
Before the stalwarts started on their errand, the Overseer of the Waiting Chamber came to the door of the lane that takes you into the Judgment Hall, wherefore the Dissenters wept, howled, and whooped.
"Ready am I, God bach," Towy exclaimed, stretching his hairy arms. "Take me."
"Patiently I waited for the last Trump and humbly do I now wait for the Crown from your fingers," said Ben Lloyd. "My deeds are recorded in the books of chapels in England and Wales and in the archives of the Cymrodorion Society."
"Clap up," Towy admonished Ben. "My religious actions can't be counted."
Lowering his eyes the Overseer murmured: "I am not the Lord."
"For why did you not say that?" cried Towy. He stepped to the Overseer. "Hap you are Apostle Shames. A splendid photo of Shames is in the Beybile with pictures. Fond am I of preaching from him. Lovely pieces there are. 'Abram believed God.' Who was Abram? Father of Isaac bach. Who made Abram? The Big Man. And the Big Man made the capel and the respected that is the jewel of the capel. Is not the pulpit the throne? Glad am I to see you, indeed, Shames."
The Overseer opened his lips.
"Enter with you will I," said Towy. "Look through my glassy soul you can."
"Silence" the Overseer began.
"Iss, silence for ever and ever, amen," said Towy. "No trial I need. How can the Judge judge if there's no judging to be? Go up will I then. Hope to see you again, Shames."
"The Overseer tightened his girdle. "Thus saith the Lord," he proclaimed: "'I will consider each by his deeds or all by the deeds of their two apostles.'"
"Ho-ho," said Towy. "Half one moment. Think will we. Dissenters, crowd here. Ben Lloyd, make arguments. Tricky is old Shames."
The Dissenters assembled close to Ben and Towy, and the Church people crept near them in order to share their counsel; but the Dissenters turned upon their enemies and bruised them with Bibles and hymn-books, and called them frogs, turks, thieves, atheists, blacks; and there never has been heard such a tumult in any house. Alarmed that he could not part one side from the other, the Overseer sought Satan, who had a name for crafty dealings with disputants.
Satan was distressed. "If it was not for personal reasons," he said, "I would let them go to Hell." He sent into the Chamber a carpenter who put a barrier from wall to wall, and he appointed Jude in charge of the barrier to guard that no one went under it or over it.
Then the wise men of the Dissenters continued to examine the Lord's offer; and a thousand men declared they were holy enough to go before God, and from the thousand five hundred were cast out, and from the five hundred three hundred, and from the two hundred one hundred were cast away. Now this hundred were Baptists, Methodists, and Congregationalists, and they quarrelled so harshly and decried one another so spitefully that Ben and Towy made with them a compact to speak specially for each of them in the private ear of God. The strife quelled and Towy having cried loudly: "Dissenters and Churchers, glad you are that me and Ben Lloyd are your apostles," he and Ben followed the Overseer.
In the Judgment Hall the two apostles crouched to pray, and they were stirred by Satan laying his hands on their shoulders.
"Prayers are useless here, my friends," said the Devil. "We must proceed with the business. I am just as anxious as you are that everything reaches a satisfactory conclusion."
"I object," said Ben. "Solemnly object. I don't know this infidel. I don't want to know him."
"Go from here," Towy gruntled. "A sweat is in my whiskers. Inhabitants, why isn't his tongue a red-hot poker? . . . Well, boys Palace, grand this is. Say who you are?" he asked one whose face shone like a mirror. "Respected Towy-Watkins am I."
He whose face shone like a polished mirror answered that he was Moses the Keeper of the Balance. "The Lord is in the Cloud," he said.
Towy addressed the Cloud, which was the breadth of a man's hand, and which was brighter than the golden halo of the throne: "Big Man, peep at your helper. Was not I a ruler over the capel? Religious were my prayers."
"I did not hear any," said God.
"Mistake. Mistake. Towy bach eloquent was I called. Here am I with the Speech, and the Speech is God and God is the Speech. Take you as a great gift this nice hymn-book."
"What are hymns?" asked God.
"Moses, Moses," cried Towy, "explain affairs to Him."
God spoke: "Satan, render your account of the mischief you made these men do."
"This is a travesty of the traditions of the House," said Ben. "Traditions that are dear to me, being taught them at my mother's knees. I refuse to be drenched in Satan's froth. Against one who if he had lived would be an M.P. you are taking the evidence of the most discredited man in the universe—the world's worst sinner."
He ceased, because Satan had begun to read; and Satan read rapidly, with shame, and without pantomime, not pausing at what times he was abused and charged with lying; and he read correctly, for the Records Clerk followed him word by word in the Book of the Watchers; and for every sin to which he confessed Moses placed a scarlet tablet in the scale of wickedness.
"I will attend to what I have heard," said the Lord when Satan had finished. "Put your tablets in the scale and go into the Chamber."
Ben and Towy withdrew, and as they passed out they beheld that the scale of scarlet tablets touched the ground.
Then the Cloud vanished and God came out of the Cloud.
"My wrath is fierce," He said. "Bind these Welsh and torment them with vipers and with fire in the uttermost parts of Hell. They shall have no more remembrance before me."
"Will you destroy the just?" asked Moses.
"They have chosen."
"Shall the godly perish because of the godless?"
"I flooded the world," said God.
"The righteous Noah and his house and his animals you did not destroy. And you repented that you smote every living thing. May not my Lord repent again?"
"I am not destroying every living thing," God replied. "I am destroying the vile."
"Remember Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's wife and his daughters. They all sinned after their deliverance. The doings of Sodom stayed."
Moses also said: "You gave your ear to Jonah from the well of the sea."
"I sacrificed my Son for man."
"And loosed Satan upon him."
"Is scarlet white?" asked God.
"Is justice the fruit of injustice? The two men were not of the Church, and the Church may be holy in your sight."
"I have judged."
"And your judgment is past understanding," said Moses, and he sat at the Balance.
The servants of the Lord spoke one with another: "I cannot eat of the supper," said one; "The songs will be as a wolf's howlings in the wilderness," said another; "The honey will be as bittersweet as Adam's apple," said a third. But Satan exclaimed: "Come, let us seek in the Book of the Watchers for an act that will turn Him from His purpose."
In seeking, some put their fingers on the leaves and advised Moses to cry unto the Lord in such and such a manner.
"My voice is dumb," replied Moses.
Satan presently astonished the servants; he took the book to the Lord. "My Lord," he said, "which is the more precious—good or evil?"
"Good," said the Lord.
"More precious than the riches of Solomon is a deed done in your name?"
"Yes."
"Though the sins were as numerous as the teeth of a shoal of fish?"
"So. Unravel your riddle."
"An old woman of the Dissenters," said Satan, "claimed four tablets, whereas her deeds were nine."
God looked at the Balance and lo, the scale of white tablets was heavier than the scale of scarlet tablets.
"Bid hither the apostles," He commanded the Overseer, "for they shall see me, and this day they and their flocks shall be in Paradise."
Satan stood before the face of Moses, glowing as the angels; and he brought out scissors to clip off the fringe of his beard. When he had cut only a little, the Overseer entered the Judgment Hall, saying: "The two apostles tricked Jude and crawled under the barrier, and they shot back the bolts of the gate of the Chariot House and called a charioteer to take them to Heaven. 'This is God's will,' they said to him."
Satan's scissors fell on the floor.