Abaddon

“ Amongst the rebel angels who are of the actors in the story, one of the principal is a cherub who repents of making his choice with Satan, mourns over his apostasy, haunts unseen the steps of our Saviour, wheels lamenting about the cross, and would gladly return to his lost duties in heaven, if only he might—a doubt which I believe is left unsolved in the volume, and naturally enough remained unsolved in Robert's mind:—Would poor Abaddon be forgiven and taken home again? ”

“ As they were evoked from the “bottomless pit” by one who had the key to that dark abode, and as they are represented in ver. 11 as under the command of one who is there called Abaddon, or Apollyon—the Destroyer—it would seem most probable that the command referred to is one that is given by him; that is, that this expresses one of the principles on which he would act in his devastations. At all events, this denotes what would be one of the characteristics of these destroyers. Their purpose would be to vex and trouble men ”

“ For some days now, neither Clare nor Abdiel had come even within sight of food enough to make a meal. The dog was rather thinner than his master.
“Abdiel,” said Clare to him one day, “I fear you will soon be a serpent! Your body gets longer and longer, and your legs get shorter and shorter: you’ll be crawling presently, rubbing the hair off your useless little belly on the dusty road! Never mind, Abdiel; you’ll be a good serpent. Satan was turned into a bad serpent because he was a bad angel; you will be a good serpent, because you are a good dog! ”

“ He was in this embarrassment when a man approached him, and said to him, “Abdallah, thou art welcome; my master, Abounadar, has long expected thee.” He then conducted him to an agreeable and magnificent pavilion, where the Dervise was seated. Abdallah, struck with the riches which he beheld on all sides, would have prostrated himself at his feet, but Abounadar prevented him, and interrupted him when he would have made a merit of the candlestick, which he presented to him. “Thou art but an ungrateful wretch,” said he to him: “Dost thou imagine that thou canst impose upon me? ”

“ She looked at Abdallah, and after having made him an inclination with her head, she set forward on her march.
Instead of observing a satisfaction in the people's faces at the sight of their sovereign, King Beder took notice that they looked at her with contempt, and even cursed her. 'The sorceress,' said some, 'has got a new subject to exercise her wickedness upon: will Heaven never deliver the world from her tyranny?' 'Poor stranger!' cried out others, 'thou art much deceived if thou thinkest thine happiness will last long. ”

“ He found the Abbot a man with a bland intriguing eye and centuries of pious leisure in his voice. He received his visitors in a room hung with smoky pictures of the Spanish school, showing Saint Jerome in the wilderness, the death of Saint Peter Martyr, and other sanguinary passages in the lives of the saints; and Odo, seated among such surroundings, and hearing the Abbot deplore the loose lives and religious negligence of certain members of the court, could scarce repress a smile as the thought of Mirandolina flitted through his mind. ”

“ Abdool said, ‘There is no such custom among Christians; but I can tell you one sentence, which, if you remember and believe, may be of service to you; and that is, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanseth from all sin!’ He requested Abdool would write to him, from time to time, on such subjects.
“Feb. 13th.—Saturday, arrived at Cawnpore. On Sunday, Abdool’s brother, and his nephew, came from Lukhnow to meet him. They received him with great affection, and wished to eat with [Pg 218] him, and to be one with him in all things. ”

“ If any one of a clearer head and larger capacity had the misfortune to be suspected of novelty, there was no way to avoid the general persecution of the monks but voluntarily banishing himself. The Abbot immediately assembled all the house, and declared he would deliver up to the secular power a person who had dared to reflect upon the honour of the kingdom and of the crown. Abelard very rightly judging that such threatenings were not to be despised, fled by night to Champaign, to a cloister of the monks of Troies, and there patiently waited till the storm should be over. ”

“ Of the twenty brethren who were driven out by the Danes eleven years ago, only twelve yet live, and eight brethren from Abingdon supply the place of the others. God be praised that Father Adhelm yet lives! He has been my right hand in so many perils and trials.
It is so delightful to be at home once more. Surely never were monks happier. My heart swells when each morning we sing the three last joyful psalms at lauds. ”

“ He brought certain ‘clerks’ from Glastonbury—the term shows that even there the community did not consist exclusively of regulars—who were willing to submit to his discipline, and soon gathered round him a band of monks. The king gave him all the land he had in Abingdon, and much money, and raised excellent buildings for him, and the gifts of the king's mother were even larger. Eadred took a warm interest in the building of the new monastery, and a visit he paid to Abingdon to give directions about it was the occasion of a remarkable miracle. ”

“ When he arrived at Magrebi, his first care was to enquire in what house, or in what convent, Abounadar lodged; he was so well known that every body told him his habitation. He repaired thither directly, and found fifty porters who kept the gate of his house, having each a staff with a head of gold in their hands: the court of this palace was filled with slaves and domestics; in fine, the residence of a prince could not expose to view greater magnificence. Abdallah, struck with astonishment and admiration, feared to proceed. ”

“ As he approached the fair of Abyla, he was astonished by the report of this mighty concourse of Jews and Christians, Greeks, and Armenians, of natives of Syria and of strangers of Egypt, to the number of ten thousand, besides a guard of five thousand horse that attended the person of the bride. The Saracens paused: “For my own part,” said Abdallah, “I dare not go back: our foes are many, our danger is great, but our reward is splendid and secure, either in this life or in the life to come. Let every man, according to his inclination, advance or retire.” Not a Mussulman deserted his standard. ”

“ Good Liquor makes us funny;
If you are dry, step in and try
The flavour of our Honey.
The early history of Abingdon-on-Thames appeared, like others, to have begun with that of a lady who built a nunnery. Cilia was the name of this particular lady, and afterwards Hean, her brother, built a monastery, or an abbey, the most substantial remains of which appeared to be the abbey gateway; but as the abbey had existed in one form or another from the year 675 down to the time of Henry VIII, when it was dissolved, in 1538, Abingdon must have been a place of considerable antiquity. St. ”

“ Abdon also, the son of Hilel, of the tribe of Ephraim, and born at the city Pyrathon, was ordained their supreme governor after Helon. He is only recorded to have been happy in his children; for the public affairs were then so peaceable, and in such security, that neither did he perform any glorious action. ”

“ Bishop Gibson first accepted Somner’s conjecture, and so adopting Abingdon, concludes that “no sane man,” who admits the authority of the Abingdon Chronicle, “can stick at it:” [40] the Abingdon Chronicle having never said it except through Somner’s distortion. Smith’s gloss, on the name in Beda is, “Vulgo Cliff, juxta Hrofes caester.” But he continues, in a note, that Somner’s opinion in preferring Abingdon seems not unworthy of observation. He recites Camden, but concludes, “Sed in his nihil ultra conjecturam, & illam certe valde fluctuantem.” ”

“ In the afternoon, Abdool walked into the native town. Met with the chief land-owner in the place [Pg 210] and neighbourhood; a man of wealth and of great good nature, and much esteemed among his own people, as a holy man. After some conversation, he invited Abdool to his house, where about a hundred people were assembled, before whom much discussion took place about religion. The above person showed more disposition to attend than any of them; and begged to have two copies of St. Matthew, and two of Persian, and that all the translations should be sent him from time to time. ”

“ In like manner several places among Pg 54 the Christians and other nations bore names which show them to have been idol-temples. When the Abadian come to such places, they visit them with the accustomed reverence, as, according to them holy places are never liable to abomination or pollution, as they still remain places of worship and adoration: both friends and foes regarding them as a Kiblah, and sinners, notwithstanding all their perverseness, pray in those sacred edifices. Rai Gópí Nath [289] thus expresses himself:
O Shaikh! ”

“ Bede, the authority quoted by Abélard, was, of course, wrong in saying that he was the bishop of Corinth, but anything which tended to shake the triple identity, established by Hilduin, of the Dionysius of Athens who listened to St. Paul, of the pseudo-Areopagite whose works were known to every medieval scholar, and of the St. Denis who had become the patron saint of France, was naturally anathematized by the monks who bore the saint's name. Bede and Abélard were by no means accurate, but Bede's inkling of the truth was quite enough to get Abélard into serious trouble. ”

“ Abdallah fell by the sword of the count, and his followers fled with loosened reins back to the city. The Christians followed hard upon them, strewing the ground with dead. At the gate of the city they were met by Almondir, the son of Abdallah, who disputed the gateway and the street inch by inch, until the whole place ran with blood. The Moors, driven from the streets, took refuge in the castle, where Almondir inspirited them to a desperate defense, until a stone struck him as he stood on the battlements, and he fell to the earth dead. ”

“ This towne with liberalitee.
Abingdon is fortunate in having so many benefactors, who seem to have vied with each other in the extent of their gifts; even the church itself is almost surrounded with almshouses, which, owing to their quaint architectural beauty, form a great attraction to visitors. It is doubtful whether any town in England of equal size possesses so many almshouses as Abingdon. ”

“ Abenadar became from this moment a new man; he adored the true God, and would no longer serve his enemies. He gave both his horse and his lance to a subaltern of the name of Longinus, who, having addressed a few words to the soldiers, mounted his horse, and took the command upon himself. Abenadar then left Calvary, and went through the Valley of Gihon to the caves in the Valley of Hinnom, where the disciples were hidden, announced the death of our Lord to them, and then went to the town, in order to see Pilate. ”

“ The young lady was in the monastery, and her guard stood round about it, with a great many of the nobility and officers richly clothed. When Abdallah saw this number of people, he was not in the least discouraged, but turned himself about to the Saracens, and said, “The apostle of God has said, that paradise is under the shadow of swords; either we shall succeed, and then we shall have all the plunder, or else die, and so, the next way to paradise.” ”

“ Now albeit Stephen had, by means of Sir Alain de Bohun, expressed his great contentment at the expulsion of Father Anselm, and at all that had been done by our community since the great meeting of the synod at Westminster, the election of the prior to be our lord abbat had not yet been formally confirmed by the king; and therefore Dominus Reginaldus did make haste to accept the invitation of the abbat of Abingdon, and to get him unto Cumnor. ”

“ His army was routed, and he himself owed his safety to the swiftness and vigour of his horse, which, pursued by the enemy, crossed an arm of the sea which lay in his way, and soon landed him on the opposite shore.
Not far from the shore was situated a fortified city called Kerassin, at that time under the dominion of King Abadid. Bazmant went to it, and demanded an asylum in the hospital destined for the reception of poor strangers. He learned that King Abadid resided in Medinet-Ilahid, the capital of the kingdom. ”

“ The place was given up to plunder, and for three days Aberdeen became a scene of horror and revolting licence, as it had been from an attack of Montrose four years before, when fighting on the other side. The approach of Argyll compelled the pillagers to fly into Banffshire, and, following the banks of the Spey, he crossed the hills of Badenoch, and, after a series of wild adventures in Athol, Angus, and Forfar, he was met by the Covenanters at Fyvie Castle, and compelled to retreat into the mountains. ”

“ The remainder of Abbadie's life was spent in writing, preaching, and in the performance—not too sedulous, for he was frequently absent from his benefice—of the ordinary duties of his office, varied by visits to England and to Holland, where most of his books were printed. Amongst his productions of this period the principal was entitled ‘La Vérité de la Religion Chrétienne Réformée, 2 vols. 8vo, Rotterdam, 1717, second edition 1718, a controversial treatise which in its four parts attacks the characteristic doctrines of the Romish church ”