The following is an excerpt from Chapter Twelve where a mysterious character named Elijah Jordon reacts to another character, Briggs, after she curses.   

 

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             “I don’t know how you got into that place,” returned Briggs.  “The security is faultless!  But I do know that you were damn lucky that Seda wasn’t carrying the virus.”

             “Damn lucky!” mimed Elijah.  “Why is it that you call to your unwanted

 master?”

             “What do you mean?” Briggs asked, thoroughly confused by Elijah’s question.

             “You called out to hell!”  Elijah shook his head.  “You don’t say, ‘you were

cancer lucky’.... or ‘heart attack lucky’... or ‘stroke lucky!’  Why, you don’t even want to think about these terrible things, much less call for them!  Yet something that can swallow up body and soul into an eternal night of pain, well, you call for it as if it were nothing but smoke to throw at a bad situation.”

             “Unwanted masters,” Briggs repeated the phrase just used by Elijah.  “So when people say God, or Jesus, or Christ in vain, they are calling for unwanted

masters, too?”

             “Oh no,” replied Elijah soberly, “it’s not the same.  When they misuse the names of the Almighty, they’re calling down the wrath of God.  This is far worse!  Far worse!  It is written, ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who taketh His name in vain.’  To use the name of God frivolously is to summon plague and pestilence to court your future!”

             Briggs was speechless.   She spoke out of habit.  She didn’t give much thought to these words.  Frankly, she didn’t give much stock to their reality either.  She decided to get back to the subject at hand.  “I simply meant to point out that you were not wearing containment gear.  If Seda had been carrying an active virus, you would be dead right now.”

             “Containment gear!” Elijah said emphatically.  “Containment gear!  It seems to me that it ain’t much good against the virus.  Am I right?”

             “How did you know that?” drilled Briggs.

             “Oh, sister, sister!”  Elijah shook his head again.  “What do you know about that virus?”

 

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“In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.”    Titus 2:7b-8

                                   

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