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A strange
spiritual obsession has laid hold of the minds of hundreds of persons in the
little riverside town of Grays, Essex (says a correspondent of the
“Express”), who emphatically assert that for several nights past, about 9 30,
while the after-glow of the sun suffused the sky, three unmistakable
apparitions, angelic in form, have appeared in the heavens with wings
outspread, above the training-ships in the river. At first it was thought
that the supposed angels might be aeroplanes, but this theory was dispelled
by their stationary attitudes and the absence of the familiar sound of
aircraft. |
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Eye-witnesses
tell me that they could neither believe nor deny the evidence of their
senses. Nor were they inclined to regard what they have seen as merely
fantastic shapes formed by the clouds. |
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One
said:--“I am neither a dreamer nor a believer in spiritual phenomena, but at
the same time I plainly saw three figures outlined against a rainbow which
answered in all respects to Gustave Dore’s pictures of celestial beings. What
they were passes my comprehension. Of course, I must take it for granted that
they were cloud shapes, but I did not imagine them. There they were, three of
them, and, what is just as wonderful, many people say they could read the
word ‘Peace’ in a sort of halo over their heads.” |
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Such is
the state of the public mind here that the “peace angels,” as they are
called, are talked of all over the district, and, while some are derisive and
facetious on the subject, it is astonishing to note the earnest way in which
the majority regard the matter, standing about in groups watching every sign
in the evening sky. |
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The
inference freely made is that the visions may be herald angels of peace—a
prestidigitation of the ardent desire for the end of the war when German
militarism has been smashed for ever.— |
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From: Confidence, Vol. X, No. 6, Nov.-Dec.
1917, pag. 84, |