Page:A Cloud of Independent Witnesses.djvu/65

TESTIMONY OF REV. EDWIN P. HOOD. 59

But the ambition of mankind set to work to construct keys innumerable; still the lock would not move. One bold and daring race, unable to find the key, sought to break open the Ark; they hammered on its sacred cornices of gold, from whence indignant lightnings shone and flashed; they beat upon the lock and sought to prize it, but it would not yield; and then as a last resource, they sought to steal the golden Chest, boasting that, as they had it in their possession, the whole of the Pyramid Palace must be theirs; and they covered it with their black cloaks and albs, and ran away believing they had it ; but to this day unmoved and uninjured it lies in the centre of the Palace, and very amazing indeed it is to see certain of the robber race strutting through the out courts of the Building, boasting, as they point to its walls, that it is all theirs. . . .

" Alas for us! We all know the building — we have all walked through many parts of it. But who will find for us the sacred Key? — for it is said that when the Key shall be found, and the finder shall walk through the Palace with the Plan, every lamp, self lighted, will blaze around the splendid rooms; the gates and pillars of precious stones — the Arabesques and Mosaics — will interfold and flash to and fro like living rainbows. . . . Oh that one would give us the Key! " (pp. 367, 368.)