I thought I had awakened in the morning, and was somewhat surprised to find that my wife was not beside me as usual.  Supposing, however, that her absence was but temporary, I waited, expecting her speedy return to our chamber; but after the lapse of what I considered a reasonable time, as she did not make her appearance, I arose and dressed.  My wife’s apparel was where she had placed it on retiring, and I felt confident she was somewhere about the house. So I went to my daughter Julia’s room, thinking she might know the whereabouts of her mother; but after knocking several times without response, I entered and found that she also was missing.

 “STRANGE, PASSING STRANGE” said I to myself: “Where can they both be?”  Then I went to the room of our son Frank, and found him up and already dressed, which was something quite unusual for him at an hour so early.  He said he had passed a very restless night, and that he might as well get up.  I told him of the absence of his mother and sister from their rooms, and requested him to look around to see if he could find them.  In the meantime I hurriedly completed my toilet, and soon Frank returned and said the missing ones were nowhere to be found, and that every door leading outward was securely locked, as on the preceding evening.  We were at our wits’ end, and what to make of this strange occurrence we did not know.  On again visiting Julia’s room, we found on a stand her well-marked open Bible. One prominent verse attracted my attention: it read, “Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not THE SON OF MAN COMETH.”  This passage, my wife had always declared, referred to the coming of Christ for His saints, the redeemed church, according to 1 Thess. 4:14-17, while I insisted that it meant only the preparation for death.  But I am digressing.  Frank and I concluded that, without waiting for breakfast, we should each take a different route, and visit some of our most intimate friends, in quest of our dear ones.

 I first called on my wife’s sister, Mrs. E., who, with her husband, were good, respectable people, members of a Christian church, though rather worldly-minded.  After I had rung the bell several times, and waited somewhat impatiently, she appeared and apologized for her dilatoriness by saying that she was “in a peck of trouble,” and had to prepare breakfast herself, for her black servant girl, whom she had always considered to be a real good Christian, had played her a mean trick.  “She had gone off somewhere, without even putting the kettle on the range, or saying a word to any of us.”

 “But what puzzles us is how she got out of the house, for the doors are all locked and the keys inside, just as we left them last evening on our return from Mrs. B’s pinochle party.”  “Indeed,” said I, “It is exceedingly strange,” and then I explained to her the object of my morning visit.  When she heard of THE MYSTERIOUS ABSENCE of my wife and Julia, she became so very nervous that I was glad to change the subject by saying that, as I had not yet had breakfast, I would join them in the morning repast.  When her husband heard my story he treated it with a good deal of levity, and declared that my wife was only playing a practical joke, to induce me to rise earlier in the morning.  He was sure the missing ones had secreted themselves somewhere about the house, and when I returned home I would find them all right.

 As we seated ourselves at the table, Mrs. E. said we would have to take coffee without milk, as her milkman, who had heretofore been very reliable, had failed to make his appearance.  Presently the door bell rang, and Frank entered in a state of great excitement, saying he had been all over inquiring for his mother and in almost every house he found trouble similar to our own.  Almost every family was anxiously SEARCHING FOR MISSING ONES.

 He had just come from our home, where he found the servant girl alone, but much agitated in consequence of the numerous calls she had had to answer about missing friends.  He also stated that the streets were thronged with excited people hurrying to and fro, many of them weeping bitterly.  At the announcement, Mr. E, showed evident signs of alarm, and related a conversation he had held yesterday with a friend, whose religious ideas he looked upon as quite heretical.

His friend insisted that a vast majority of church members, in these days, were but nominal Christians, “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof,” and that the love of the masses for religious things had reached a very low ebb.  “My friend also assured me,” said Mr. E., “that the Scriptures clearly taught that, when the elect number of Christ’s church would be completed, Christ would come unexpectedly as a thief in the night, and call His saints, both dead and alive, to meet Him in the air.  The transformation would be effected in the twinkling of an eye, and although the call would be made with a shout and the sound of a trumpet, yet none would hear it but those for whom it was intended.  Then would be realized the import of Christ’s words.  “Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.  Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left” (Matt. 24:40-41).  I fear that time has now come and, sad to say, we are among the left ones.”

Now as the morning was far advanced, it was suggested that we go down to our business places.  Frank had already gone to his office, and I, with a heavy heart, wended my way along the avenue among an unusual throng of men and women, whose faces betokened INTENSE SORROW.  In the business parts of the city, I observed that many stores were closed, and those that were open did not appear to be doing any business.  Every saloon that I passed was open, as usual, with groups of men inside, apparently engaged in serious discussion.  I passed by the City Hall; there was no perceptible diminution of the usual crowd of political “hangers on” around the building.

When I reached my own store, I found that my bookkeeper and the faithful old porter, who had served me so many years, had not yet put in an appearance.  My other two clerks were on hand, doing nothing, nor did I feel like asking them to do anything.  Yesterday I agreed to sell a worthy mechanic a small piece of land that I owned in the outskirts of the city and had an appointment to meet him at a lawyer’s office to sign the contract, but he failed to come, and I presumed he also joined the absent ones.  I then went to the Chamber of Commerce and found the largest gathering of merchants that I had seen there in many months.  Instead of the lively, noisy bustle of buying and selling, and of clerks and messenger boys running to and fro, there was a solemn gloom pervading the whole assembly.  By unanimous consent, and in consequence of the great calamity that had overtaken the community it was voted that “three days grace be allowed on all contracts falling due on this day.”  I will not attempt to set forth any of the reasons and speculations that were advanced as to the course of our present troubles, but all agreed that the visitation was a supernatural one, and that in some way we who were left on earth were blamable for it.  In the evening nearly every church in the city was open, with overflowing congregations.  Everybody was anxious to know the cause and MEANING OF THE “GREAT VISITATION” and to learn how lost hopes might be regained.

Many of the pastors had gone with the missing ones, but some were present in their churches.  All order of service was dispensed with, and noisy confusion prevailed, crimination and recrimination were bandied to and fro, between the pastors and the people, the latter asserting that if the pastors had done their duty, and taught their flocks the plain truths of the Bible, instead of lulling them to sleep with philosophical and moral essays, they would not now be in their present sad condition.  In my own church the pastor was present, with scores of persons whom I had but rarely seen at meetings.

The pastor was speaking when I entered the room, and was entreating the audience to endeavor to allay their feelings, while he would attempt to speak to them for a few minutes.  Quiet being somewhat restored, he said: “This pastor’s heart is bleeding at every pore in sympathy with his sorely-afflicted people.  The anguish that I experienced at being, in a measure, the cause of our present unhappy condition, is indescribable.  None of you can realize the KEEN DISAPPOINTMENT I endured at this result of my labors.  I am accused of having preached too much about material things and the affairs of this life, and too little about the heavenly state and the things to come; and of having kept you in ignorance of the imminency of the awful visitation that has manifested itself among us this day.  In reply to all these accusations, I can only say that I taught you the same theology that was taught to me in the Seminary, and which I, in common with the great majority of our ministerial brethren, firmly believed to be the teaching of God’s Word.

“But now I have to confess that I was sadly mistaken, for after what has occurred, I cannot help believing that God’s Word means just what it says.  My pastoral labors, during all the time I have been with you, have been excessive and in consequence.  I have not been able to devote to the study of prophecy the time which a subject so deep and intricate demanded.”

Here the electric light suddenly went out, and there arose such fearful screams that I sprang to my feet in terror—and—I awoke!  My wife, who was in an adjoining room, hearing my sudden upspring, hastened in to see what was the matter.  Oh, how glad I was to see her, and realize my terrible experience in my easy chair was only A DREAM.  But the more I thought of it afterwards, the more solemn seemed the Scripture truths which it contained, and the more I was impressed with the importance of having our lamps trimmed and burning, ready to go and meet the Bridegroom.